Perchance to Dream
by Gabrielle Lawson
Summary: What if Snart didn't actually die? Now he's bait for someone's revenge and it's up to the team to save him. (Warnings for gore.)
1. Prologue

Author's Note: When Doyle sacrificed himself on Angel, I lost my mind a little bit. So I wrote a short story (Just a Messenger) and a novella (Close to Home . . . .— a crossover with Buffy The Vampire Slayer) which left Doyle alive in the little place in my head where fictional characters exist. It was my therapy and it was effective. When Call of Duty: Ghosts ended the way it did with the reality being very likely there will _NOT_ be a Call of Duty: Ghosts 2 ever, I had to write my own story to resolve the cliffhanger they set up at the end of the game (Philippe de la Matraque's More Than a Ghost). So there's a trend here. I started watching Legends of Tomorrow with my husband and got hooked on Snart. Then I watched the Flash and got to see how he started. Didn't turn me off him. I mourned. I actually cried when Snart died at the end of Season 1. I was annoyed how little he seemed to matter to everyone in Season 2. But this story started nagging me in the quiet moments of my life. I have other stories to write. I have to get this one out so I can get back to my other stories in the works. It'll be my therapy as before. I hope you enjoy it, too.

This story is set directly after second season finale. I had not seen Season 3 yet as I started to write it. Some of the first couple of episodes may come in to play, but mostly not. I plan going my own way from the end from maybe the first episode of Season 3.

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Prologue**

Captain Eve Baxter finished the last of the _Acheron_'s repairs and stood up to stretch her tired muscles. Maybe Rip Hunter had had the right idea with having a crew. She could have used a few extra hands. As it was she'd been working alone with only Gilbert for company. Well, and Jon Valor in her brig. She normally didn't mind being alone, but she was normally off saving the time line or catching pirates. She wasn't just stuck in deep space repairing her ship with no other human to talk to besides her prisoner.

Captain Baxter returned to the bridge and asked Gilbert to confirm the repairs were finished.

"We are fully operational again, ma'am," the AI replied.

"Good, open a channel to the High Council. Let them know we're bringing in—"

Gilbert interrupted her. "We're receiving an urgent message from the High Council. All timeships are ordered to return and defend the Vanishing Point."

Eve hurried to her chair. "Set course, Gilbert. Maximum capacity." She pushed the lever forward and shot into the time stream at full speed. The _Acheron_ was the flagship, arguably the fastest vessel in the fleet. It only took a few minutes for her to drop out of the time stream. She tried hailing the Council but a large explosion rocked the _Acheron_ even at a distance. New explosions filled the periphery as the fire spread to every corner of the Vanishing Point. She piloted her ship straight toward the Oculus, oblivious to everything else. Only the Wellspring could have made such a blast. "Where are the other captains?" she asked, as she scanned the area. There were no other timeships defending the area.

"There are twenty timeships adrift in various stages of destruction," Gilbert reported. "No heat signatures. Though I did note the _Waverider_ speeding away just before the blast."

Hunter! What had he done? She landed as close to the Wellspring as she could. There were charred bodies all around as she exited the vehicle. The closest one was moving, quivering rather. She ran to it. Whoever it had been was struggling to breathe, blood spilling out onto a blackened chin. It appeared to be a man. He was missing most of his left arm and parts of his other limbs. He was dying. "Gilbert, prepare for emergency stasis."

She took a deep breath and slid her arms under the shoulders of the poor man and dragged him back up the ramp into her ship. She could really use a crew now. "Damn it, Hunter," she cursed. "Why?" She worried at first about the pain she might be causing this man, but she had to hurry. He didn't have long. Finally she maneuvered him into the chair in the medbay and touched the panel. The blood stopped, the quivering stopped. The man was still.

"Gilbert, status?"

"Male in his mid-forties. Alive but in critical condition. There is more damage here than we can manage on the _Acheron_. I recommend continuing stasis until we can get him to a higher level of care."

Eve sighed. He was alive. That was enough for now. "I'm going to see if there are others."

That day she cried more than she had in years. Body after body. The Wellspring was in ruins. The Oculus was gone. But she was still here and she needed to eat. Her prisoner needed to eat. She washed her hands and replicated two meals, then she went to the brig.

* * *

"Whoa," Jon Valor sneered, taking in her bedraggled and, quite frankly, filthy appearance. "You've seen better days."

She just looked at him. Then she set down her tray and pulled her gun. "Step back." There was no emotion to her voice. Something bad had happened.

He did as she commanded. They'd played this routine out so many times before. He'd tried rushing her once. But she shot him in the arm, and he behaved after that. She opened the doors, set his tray down, and closed them again. She just stood there for a few moments. Had she been crying?

Valor moved toward his tray and sat down. She finally stepped back and slid down the wall, dropping the gun beside her.

"I'm surprised," he told her. "I know we landed. So why am I still in here? I thought you were going to turn me in."

"I can't," she said, deadpan still. Like she was in shock.

Valor set down his fork. "What do you mean, you can't?"

"It's gone."

"What's gone?"

"Everything.

He pushed the tray aside. "What happened, Eve?" He had felt the ship get rocked by something.

A tear rolled down her already tear-stained cheek. "The Vanishing Point is destroyed. I found one. One survivor."

"Well, what does your one survivor say?"

"He can't say anything. He's in stasis. He was on his way out."

That explained the filthy clothes. This might be a good thing, he thought. No Time Council, no justice. She had to let him go. Eventually. He could manage that, though it was incredibly boring in a timeship brig. He'd keep her talking, make friends. Heck, she wasn't unattractive even. Well, most days. Today she was hideous. Given time, she'd grow to trust him. Maybe she'd even join him. If the Time Masters were no more, she'd make one hell of a pirate.


	2. Chapter One

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter One**

In the following months, she did find other survivors in the various pieces of what had been the Vanishing point. Eleven in all. Some had been members of the High Council, some just guards and a couple captains. But with their ships gone and the Oculus destroyed, the Time Masters were finished. There was no temporal data to be had. She was able to scavenge two jump ships, and those survivors chose to leave the Vanishing Point and return to Earth. They couldn't identify the survivor in her medbay. Gilbert was busy trying to match a DNA sample to known samples. Without the temporal database, it was taking longer. Gilbert had to scour every known DNA database in all Earth's history. They could only tell her that Hunter's team had escaped imprisonment, tampered with the other timeships, blown up the Oculus Wellspring.

Still Eve Baxter kept looking. She took her own jump ship from fragment to fragment, searching. Hoping. She took samples from each body before cremating each one. Gilbert identified them, kept a record. Master Druce was near the epicenter, off to one side with a dozen guards. She took any tech she thought useful and destroyed the rest lest it fall into unscrupulous hands. As if just anyone could find their way to the Vanishing Point.

Each morning and each evening she found herself sitting in the brig with Valor. He listened as she told him what she found or didn't find. He talked about his life before becoming a pirate to take her mind off of things so she could sleep. And she found herself thinking he was handsome and kind and if only he wasn't a time pirate.

Seven months and she found herself opening the doors and eating across from him. She found she looked forward to seeing his smile after a long day searching the ruins of everything she'd pledged her life to.

Eight months and Gilbert had a name. Leonard Snart, born in Central City in 1970. Disappeared in 2016. His weapon was a cold gun. No sign of it at the Wellspring. He must have left it with the others. When she pulled up his record from the Wanted list, she found he was a burglar and that she'd had another one of Rip's criminals on her ship. The brute Mick Rory. He had turned on them. But from the reports of the survivors he was with Hunter here, even after being indoctrinated as Chronos again. But this criminal was left behind. This criminal had to have been the one who destroyed the Oculus Wellspring and the Vanishing Point along with it. She watched him for hours. He didn't even look human anymore.

"He's a mass murderer now," Jon told her. He stood behind her in the medbay. Just the two of them—and Snart—in all the Vanishing Point. "What are you going to do with him? No cops on Earth would take him in. Not like that."

"I could let him die," she said. "Like all the others. Why should he live when hundreds died?"

"Take him out of stasis and he dies quickly," Jon commented. "A quick death is too easy for him. He's a mass murderer, a terrorist. Not even a pirate would stoop as low as he did. Besides it wasn't just him."

"It was Hunter!" Eve exclaimed. "He did this. I helped him and his crewmen escape this ship. I gave him the updated temporal information. And this is what he does with it? Destroys the Vanishing Point? How could this happen anyway? There were just eight of them. The High Council had all but four. Vandal Savage took two and two were at large. Him and a woman. How did six people defeat this entire base?"

"By tampering with the other ships and blowing up the Oculus," Jon told her. "It's what I would have done if faced with those odds. But I didn't even know the Oculus existed."

"They told Hunter, showed him," Eve replied, bitterness adding a bite to her words. "They showed him, put that thought into his head. What were they thinking?"

"They were cocky," Jon answered. "The almighty Time Masters. They thought they had everything under control, predicted every move. They didn't."

"So what do I do with him," she asked. "I can't make him suffer without killing him."

"You can make him suffer a little," Jon told her. "Lower the stasis field efficiency. Make his death a long one. And then use him for bait. Hunter will come for him. He did what he did so the _Waverider_ could escape. Sacrificed his life. They think he's dead or they would have come back for him. Show them that he's not and they'll come. He's a savior to them."

Eve felt a wave of vengeance wash over her. She would bring them all to justice. But this one, this one would exist in pain for as long she could make him. "Gilbert, reduce stasis efficiency to ninety-five percent."

Gilbert sounded shocked, as if an AI could be shocked. "That is outside my programming. The medbay is meant for healing and not torture."

Ordinarily she would not speak override codes out loud in the face of a pirate. But Jon wasn't a pirate to her anymore. He was a friend. Maybe more. And she wasn't a Time Master anymore. "Override. Tango elephant six."

Gilbert didn't give in so easily. "This is inhumane."

"What he did was inhumane!" she shouted. "Do it! I want him to feel it!"

She watched the panel as the stasis efficiency dropped to ninety-five percent. She watched for brain activity. There was barely any.

"He's probably burnt off most of his nerve endings," Jon said. "Lower it some more."

"Ninety percent, Gilbert," Eve ordered, watching the display.

"I do this under protest, ma'am," Gilbert responded but the stasis field efficiency dropped again.

"Can he feel it?" Jon asked.

Eve turned to him. "He's still unconscious but his brain is registering pain. Now it's time to send Hunter a message."

"Ma'am," Gilbert interrupted, "I'm sensing four heat signatures moving in the wreckage. One moves incredibly fast. Shall I cloak?"

"Yes, Gilbert," Eve replied, turning away from the patient—no—prisoner. She took Jon's hand and headed for the bridge. "Keep an eye on them Gilbert. Can you identify them?"

"Facial recognition may take a long time, but one is looks surprising like the man in sickbay, before the explosion."

Jon held her elbows gently as he turned her toward him. "I'll go take a look. I'll stay hidden. They'll never know I was here."

"Take a weapon, just in case," she told him. "Come back to me."

"Always."

* * *

Jon Valor had started seducing her slowly, for his own ends, but the more time he spent with her, now that her moral compass was completely shattered, he'd found he liked her company. Cleaned up, she was quite attractive and she had a quick mind. He was right about her though. She was becoming a good pirate. And he was willing to put his relationship with her ahead of his selfish need for control. He wouldn't share control with just anyone. Eve Baxter, it turned out, was worth it.

He found them setting up a base of sorts, just a room with some weapons. The fast one wasn't in and he worried that the speedster would sneak up on him. He observed the others. Snart seemed aloof, cocky. The light-haired one was arguing with the dark-haired man as Snart observed from a corner. Jon discretely planted a bug he'd fabricated on the _Acheron_ and slipped back toward the ship.

Once safely inside, he asked Eve to pull up the audio band from the bug. A man's voice. "He's using us and we're just letting him do it."

"I don't know about you, Merlyn, but I'm dead so I need him."

"And he knows it," Merlyn replied. "But I happen to know he's dead, too. He needs us as much as we need him."

Eve cut the fed. "They're in league with the speedster," she concluded. "To what end?"

"They spoke of a powerful spear before I got that bug in place," Jon told her.

She thought for a moment. "They shouldn't even think of playing with such things," she said, sounding very much like a Time Master again. "How even did they get here?"

"They had some round vessel. Hunter's early model, if I remember correctly," Jon told her. "I'm surprised it would fit four."

"So they're time traveling," she said, mulling the idea, "for nefarious means. And that explains how Mr. Snart can be in our medbay and standing there with them. They have retrieved him from the past. I still don't like the idea of people mucking with the timeline. We should stop them."

"No, we shouldn't," Jon said. "It's just the two of us and this ship. There are three of them now and a speedster who could show up at any time. We have our own nefarious plot, remember?

"Justice isn't nefarious," she argued, but she didn't sound fully convinced.

"Either way," Jon said, "we should retreat and go get some more men. Hunter has six more on his team. These guys could be an issue. We want to outnumber them all."

"You lost your crew," she reminded him.

"That was only part of my men," Valor said. "I have plenty more."

"They'll take orders from me?" Eve was skeptical.

"They will if I tell them to," Jon assured her. "I hated the Time Masters, I admit it. But they didn't deserve to die like this."

He turned away from her to plot a course but thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eyes. But when he looked in that direction, there was nothing there.

As her ship filled with crew members, she found herself with a lack of rooms. So she invited Jon to stay with her. Without the Time Masters, there were no pirates, really. One couldn't break a law that didn't exist. No, she saw Jon now as that kind man who had helped her through the saddest parts. A man driven toward his goals. He had a handsomeness to him, and a gentleness with her. As she was coming to terms with life after the Time Masters, she found she wanted a life with him. She could reform him to some extent and she'd let him corrupt her just a bit. Vengeance felt good after grief.

And Jon followed her orders. He made his men follow her orders. They were not to be slovenly rogues. They were to be a crew. Hunter had a crew and now she did, too. She gave them duties, learned their strengths. She watched as they avoided the medbay like it was some sort of omen. She was going to surprise Hunter when he came for his sacrifice.

By the time they returned to the Vanishing point, the interlopers were gone, for good or ill. She and Jon and twenty others rigged the ruins with booby traps. Hunter was not going to take the prisoner. He and his crew were going to die with him.

Finally, all the preparations were set. "Gilbert, it's time to send Rip Hunter a message."

* * *

"Michael!" Mother called.

Rip left the library and met Mother in the hall. A couple kids ran by. Rip found himself missing those youngsters that were his teammates. Especially one little baby. The others were alive and well, all grown up. Grief over Snart paled in comparison with his grief over Miranda and Jonas but it still hurt. Without Snart, they would not have been able to end Vandal Savage. Without Snart, they wouldn't have escaped the Time Masters' captivity and freed everyone in the world of they're grip. Destiny was no more. And who else would ever know? He had told them they would be legends. But only a handful would ever know the gift that Leonard Snart gave everyone who would ever live from now on.

"There's a message for you," Mother said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You should take it in the jump ship. I wouldn't want it to upset the children."

Rip nodded. He stepped outside wondering what kind of message would disturb the children. Who else would be calling accept Sara or someone else from the _Waverider_?

Rip closed the door on the jump ship then sat down at the controls and pulled up the message. He was shocked to see Eve Hunter on the screen.

"This message is for Rip Hunter." She moved closer to the screen. "You must be proud of yourself, aren't you, Rip?" Her tone was accusatory. "Proud of your team? You got away, probably killed Savage, definitely destroyed the Vanishing Point. You've won. And it only took the sacrifice of one of your team to do it. Was it worth it? Did you save your wife and son? Was it worth the lives of the hundreds that died here? You see, I wasn't at the Vanishing Point until just after. Your team didn't disable my ship. The few survivors I found fled the Vanishing Point-except one. But you don't mind those dead, do you? It didn't matter to you that you swore an oath to them." Her voice got quiet, menacing, "What about the other cost? The cost to that one man you sacrificed? You'll find a datastream attached to this message. Look it over carefully. Then come find me." Her face winked out.

Rip tried to open the datastream but it was too big for the jump ship. He thought about going back inside to view it but decided against it. He could return to the _Waverider_ but there was one other timeship that could handle the file and analyze it. One that they'd left sitting in Nepal, just in case. Rip decided against using the time drive. With time still broken, it was a crap shoot whether or not he'd get caught in a time quake. The ship would still be waiting whatever time it was.

The trip took a few hours but he found the ship right where they'd left it, still cloaked. He docked the jump ship then entered. "Welcome back, Captain Hunter," the ship's AI said by way of greeting.

"Thank you, Gabriel," Rip replied. Gabriel seemed to have just slightly less personality than Gideon but he could work with it.

"I need you to open this datastream and analyze it for me." Rip had transferred it to the ship when he docked.

"Of course, sir." The AI brought the datastream up on the main computer. It was a video. Rip might have thought it a still image if it were not for the waves of light playing over an object—no, a person—in a medbay chair. There were slight changes on the readout beside the chair. It was the person in the chair that disturbed him. Rip felt a pit open in the depths of his stomach. "My God!" It was a person, blackened and broken. "Is that Leonard Snart?"

"Yes, sir," Gabriel replied. "DNA data accompanied the video. It matches the remnants of flesh on the aft deck."

Rip ran a hand over his beard then enlarged the image. He could just make out the jacket, the goggles. They looked melted into his flesh. His face was— it didn't look like face. "He's alive? How?"

"He is in stasis, though in critical condition," Gabriel replied. "Would you like a detailed analysis of his condition?"

Rip couldn't stop staring. "God no!" He didn't think he could take a detailed analysis without vomiting. "Just give me the highlights."

"He has fourth degree burns over much of his face and third degree burns over much of the rest of his body. There is little remaining of his left arm and several other limbs will require amputation to one degree another. More concerning, shrapnel has infiltrated his upper torso, and it appears he inhaled super-heated gasses. His lungs are beyond saving. Other internal organs would be failing if not for stasis, inefficient as it is."

"Inefficient?"

"Stasis is only at ninety percent efficiency," Gabriel reported with no hint of emotion. Gideon would have had a hint. "Full stasis would arrest this man's death until he could be delivered to a higher level of care. At ninety percent, his death is merely slowed, though exponentially. And it does appear that it allows some brain function, primarily to parts of the brain that register pain."

Rip definitely felt ill. He studied the readout beside the chair. Pinpoints of light slowly blinked on and off in the diagram of his brain. "He's not conscious?"

"He is not," Gabriel replied.

"You said his death was slowed. How long, based on what we see here and the timestamp of the message, until he—" He hated phrasing it this way. "—expires."

"Time is different in the Vanishing Point," Gabriel answered. "But extrapolating to Earth years, ninety-seven point two years, four days and six minutes."

"The message came from the Vanishing Point?" Rip asked.

"Yes, shall I set a course?"

"No," Rip replied, closing the datastream. He couldn't bear to look at look at Snart like that. "Can you locate the _Waverider?_

"Always," Gabriel replied. "That ship is a designated target. As are you. Shall I edit that target list?"

The annoyance he was starting to feel was a welcome distraction from his mix of emotions in finding that Snart was alive and suffering. "Yes, delete all previous targets and set course for the _Waverider_. I'm thinking this ship can weather the issues we're having with time having been broken?"

"This ship was designed to hunt time criminals, Captain," Gabriel replied. "It can handle a lot more than the _Waverider_."

"Let's go then," Rip said. "No time to waste."

* * *

If Leonard Snart could even form words in his mind, they might have been pain, burning, lonely. But his thoughts came so slowly they weren't even thoughts, but more like sensations, mere hints of the meanings behind those words. Had he been able to wonder at all, he might have wondered if this is was what death meant for him, or if the others had survived and finished their mission, if his death had meant anything at all. But that required a higher level of consciousness than his condition and the stasis field he was under would allow. Leonard Snart was dying, very slowly, and he wasn't even aware of it.


	3. Chapter Two

Author's Note: I had to make up a name for Chronos's ship and it's AI. Maybe it's in future (to me) episodes of Legends but I ain't there yet.

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Two**

Sara Lance looked out in front of the _Waverider_ with dismay. She knew they had broken time, and that that was why things were so wrong out there. But there was so much wrong that she didn't have the first clue how she and the rest of the team could possible put things right.

"Incoming message, Captain," Gideon announced.

Sara welcomed the interruption but wasn't sure who might be calling, given the situation. She smiled when she saw Rip Hunter on the screen. "Change your mind already?" she asked.

"We need to talk," Rip said, not offering a smile in return. "In person. I'm docking. I'll there momentarily." The screen winked out.

"What's up, Boss?" Mick asked, a doughnut in one hand and a beer in the other.

"Not sure yet," Sara replied. "Gideon, call the others to the bridge."

Rip joined them a few minutes after everyone else had gathered. "Good to see you again, Rip," Ray offered.

"I can't say this is a good thing I've come for," Rip replied, as he plugged a chip into the center console.

"You've seen what's outside, huh," Jax says.

Rip waved him off. "Well, yes, but that's going to have to wait. This is about Snart."

Nate raised a hand. "Which Snart are we talking about?"

Rip met Sara's gaze. "Our Snart."

Mick came closer, elbowing Nate out of the way. "What about him?"

Rip sighed. "I received a message from Eve Baxter, Captain of the _Acheron_. Gideon?"

The screen lit up with Eve Baxter's face and the message began to play. "This message is for Rip Hunter. You must be proud of yourself, aren't you, Rip? Proud of your team? You got away, probably killed Savage, definitely destroyed the Vanishing Point. You've won. And it only took the sacrifice of one of your team to do it. Was it worth it? Did you save your wife and son? Was it worth the lives of the hundreds that died here? You see, I wasn't at the Vanishing Point until just after. Your team didn't disable my ship. The few survivors I found fled the Vanishing Point—except one. But you don't mind those dead, do you? It didn't matter to you that you swore an oath to them. What about the other cost? The cost to that one man you sacrificed? You'll find a datastream attached to this message. Look it over carefully. Then come find me."

Sara looked at Mick. "The datastream?"

"I warn you," Rip said, holding up a hand. "It's quite graphic."

Sara tried to prepare herself. "Gideon?"

The screen changed and now there was video playing, though the camera angle never moved. There was a light playing over a still, blackened figure on a medbay chair with a display beside him. The figure didn't look human but as Sara looked closer, she could make out a head, shoulders, torso, parts of limbs.

"My God!" Amaya exclaimed. "How is he even alive?"

"He's in stasis," Rip replied.

"Are we certain it's him?" Martin asked quietly.

"I'm afraid it is, Professor," Gideon replied. "Mr. Snart is in a very sorry state."

Mick growled. His face turned red. "I need to break something. Or someone!" Amaya put a hand on his arm.

It hurt to think that figure was Leonard Snart. The wise-cracking thief who'd frozen and broken off his own hand. She'd kissed him before she left with Mick. And it had hurt immensely when he was gone, but she couldn't say that kiss was about being in love with him. And she couldn't say she wasn't open to the possibility. But it had been a year and she'd learned about Laurel soon after anyway. Her grief over her sister had pushed out her grief over a man she might have grown to love. She'd comforted herself in that he'd died a hero's death. Made it so they all loved and missed him. But now, she'd made peace with Laurel's death and Snart was there, burned and broken.

Ray pointed to the display beside the bed. "Why does it say '90%' right there?"

Rip took in a deep breath before answering. "The efficiency of the stasis field has been compromised. Stasis should arrest Mr. Snart's dying state indefinitely. But compromised as it is, his death is merely delayed, exponentially. And it allows his brain to register pain, on some level." He waved a hand. "It doesn't allow for consciousness, at least."

"Let's go get him!" Mick insisted.

One side of Rip's mouth tipped up in the slightest of smiles. But Sara had a responsibility now. "We can't," she said. "I want to get him as must as anyone but you've seen what's outside? This ship is stuck and we can't leave things the way they are out there."

"I can help with the ship," Rip stated. "And time can wait. Mr. Snart has been waiting long enough. Time is different in the Vanishing Point. I came as soon as I received the message. But the timestamp of that message was sent months ago."

That hurt. Sara made up her mind. "Time will have to wait, then. Let's get out thief back."

Stein stepped forward. "Mr. Snart would be the first to tell us that this is a trap."

"And he'd be right," Rip told him, "as usual. And of course, we can't just go there guns ablaze. We need a plan, one that doesn't get our friend killed."

"How can you get the ship out?" Jax asked.

Rip turned with a flare of his duster. "We did leave a certain timeship parked outside Nanda Parbat for just such emergencies."

Mick looked less red. "My ship."

"Yes, well, Chronos's ship," Rip replied. "The _Timestalker_ is a bounty hunter's ship. It was built to hunt time criminals and pirates. It doesn't have some of the luxuries of the _Waverider_, but it's more robust and has a more toys. I can tractor the _Waverider_ out."

"But we are still stuck in the rocks," Nate pointed out. "And there are dinosaurs out there."

"May I?" Rip asked looking to Sara.

Sara smiled and shook her head. "Please do."

Rip turned to take in the team. "Ray, you and Firestorm can break up those rocks and stay out of the reach of the local wildlife. I'll tractor the _Waverider_ into orbit. Once there, Jax, you and I will work on the _Waverider_'s repairs. Mick, you'll take _Timestalker_ for reconnaissance. Ray and Professor Stein will work on a way to get Mr. Snart out without killing him, and the rest of us will plan our attack based on the intelligence gathered by Mr. Rory."

"Let's do it," Sara decided.

Rip started toward the corridor then turned back. "You might want to strap in. This is going to get a bit bumpy."

Jax, Martin and Ray quickly left the bridge, and the rest of the team took their seats and pulled down the restraints. Bumpy was an understatement.

* * *

Amaya had volunteered to go with Mick. Well, that and Sara had given her a look that suggested it. Mick ran hot. And Snart was his partner. And a guy who had died—nearly died—saving his life. She wanted to be there to help keep him from blowing through the villains like a hurricane.

She didn't know much, well anything, of his time as Chronos. He didn't talk about it. But the ship's AI called him that until Mick insisted he stop. Gabriel was all business, it seemed, like the ship. Between Mick and Gabriel, the _Timestalker_ made a clean break into the timestream and now was on a course for the Vanishing Point. It was not a place Amaya ever wanted to return to. It seemed to her a forlorn place, bereft of life. It felt like it had been ruined decades or centuries before. Then she remembered what Rip had said about time being different. Maybe it had been? How long had Snart been in that stasis chamber?

"What happened, Mick?" she asked. "You guys don't talk about it much, about him, much."

"Hurts too much," Mick admitted. "It was supposed to be me. Well, Haircut but I traded places. I'd betrayed the team, even before Chronos. And I wanted to make those bastards pay. So it should've been me."

Amaya stepped closer. "What bastards? The Time Masters?"

"Time bastards used the Oculus to see the time line," Mick explained. "But not just see it. They guided it. Guided us when we thought we were making our own choices. Always made it so Rip couldn't save his family and Savage always succeeded. We decided to blow it up. Haircut started. Then me. Then him. The only way we got out."

"Guided?" Amaya was starting to put it all together. "So that's what Ray means him by saving free will."

Mick looked down. "That's why he's a hero."

They arrived cloaked and Amaya kept Mick in check. The _Timestalker_ did have more toys, as Rip had put it. They were able to locate the _Acheron_ even as it was cloaked. And they could scan it for heat signatures. Besides the engines and the time drive, it showed twenty smaller heat signatures moving about the ship.

"Is the _Acheron_ laid out the same as the _Waverider_?" Amaya asked.

"Mostly," Mick replied. "Bridge is smaller."

Amaya studied the schematics displayed on the screen in front of them. "Then the medbay should be here." She pointed to a particular room.

"Should be," Mick agreed.

"No heat signature there."

"Wouldn't be in stasis," Mick told her. "No movement, no heartbeat, no heat."

"Shall I scan for ordinance?" Gabriel asked.

"Yes," Amaya replied. "Please do."

"I assume you are familiar with the ship's weaponry," Gabriel replied. "But I do detect two more cannon. These could have been salvaged from the wreckage of twenty-three time ships in near proximity."

"Gabriel," Mick said. "Any known pirates?"

"I can identify only seven." Seven images came up on the screen.

"Gabriel?"

"Yes, Mr. Rory?"

"Set a new target list. Eve Baxter, Jon Valor, the other six, and the _Acheron_."

"So noted."

"We should get back with what we know," Amaya suggested.

Mick growled but told Gabriel to set a course back to the _Waverider._

* * *

"Jon Valor, of course," Rip said, running a hand through his hair. "She must have had him in her brig."

Sara looked confused. "We blew the other pirates out into space," Jax explained.

"While I confronted Mr. Valor on the bridge," Rip finished. "So he was the only one she could have captured."

"Apparently he made more friends," Mick said.

Rip turned to him. "Yes, well, stands to reason. They know we have a team. They couldn't take us on alone, just the two of them. But we have a few advantages."

"Like what?" Martin asked.

"Like the _Timestalker_, Mr. Heywood, and Ms. Jiwe. Eve Baxter and Jon Valor never saw ATOM either."

"They have cannons," Mick said. "Salvaged from timeships."

Sara was thinking. Rip kept talking. "The _Waverider_ can make the rendezvous. She may shoot at us or she may want us to dock to parlay or draw us in. But _Timestalker_ can flank her."

"And I'll get Snart." Everyone turned to Ray. "I've been watching the heat signatures. Nobody goes to the medbay. Maybe one, probably Eve Baxter, to gloat. But if she's busy with all of you, ATOM can fly in there unnoticed."

"But what will you do with him once you're in there?" Rip asked, hopeful. "Every second he's out of stasis could cost him what little life he has left."

"We're working on that," Martin replied. "Gideon has been sharing her schematics and we think we can build an autonomous device. We could use Mr. Jackson's help in putting it all together."

"It's big," Ray admitted. "But I can make it small. I can make him small. It will be easier to move him quickly and gently. I snap him inside, shrink us all and fly back out. She'll never even know we were there until she sees he's gone."

Nate slapped the table. "So we don't necessarily have to beat them. We just have to keep them busy long enough for Ray to get in and out."

Sara smiled. "I think I've got a plan. And we're gonna beat them."

* * *

If Leonard Snart hadn't lost most of his nerve endings, he might have felt the chair beneath his back, his head, his thighs, the pressure on his back. If his ear canals had not been burnt, he might have heard the Time Master or the sounds of the _Acheron_'s medbay. But those things had happened, and the stasis field kept him docile and quiet and unable to process the information from ears, or eyes, or nerve endings. He existed only in those sensations without names, without shape or form or reason. If he could want, he might have wanted to simply stop existing.


	4. Chapter Three

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Three**

The _TimeStalker_ tractored the _Waverider_ right to the edge of the time stream and dropped the tractor beam as they entered the Vanishing Point. Sara took over after that. She slipped them past the _Acheron_ and landed some distance away. Mick took the _TimeStalker_ far to the other side of _Acheron_. Having Pretty aboard meant a lot of questions. Annoying questions. About Chronos, about the little pieces of Snart's hand that were still on the aft deck. But Mick let them slide, mostly without answers. They were going to get Snart back and make Eve Baxter and her pirates pay. Nothing else, even Pretty's questions, mattered.

"Heading in," Haircut's voice cut over comms.

"Stay small until I give the signal," Sara ordered. "And Mick, don't fire until we're ready."

Mick landed and let Nate out before lifting off again. At a distance he could see the _Waverider_ coming out of cloak.

* * *

"They're here!" Jon called. Eve came running.

"This is it," she told her people over comms. "None can escape. We must kill them all!"

"They'll be coming for him," Jon said. "Team One, you're up. Check out the ship. Kill anyone you find then secure the _Waverider_."

"Yes, sir," Madden, Team One's leader said, smiling. "With pleasure. Let's go, boys!"

Madden took eight and headed to left, flanking their way to the _Waverider_ while the remainder took defensive positions around and in _Acheron_.

"Team Two, do you see them?" Eve asked on comms.

"I think I see Hunter," Gavin reported. He was stationed at the right cannon. It sat high and gave a wider view of the ground between the _Waverider_ and _Acheron_. "He's alone."

"I doubt that," Eve retorted. "Team One, any resistance?"

"Negative," Madden reported. "We're entering the ship now. Fan out."

They waited.

Then she heard a voice she hated. "Your fight is with me, Eve Baxter! It was my plan to blow the Oculus, to stop the Time Masters. They used it to not only view the timeline, but to manipulate it to their will. They killed my family to motivate me on the path that I thought I had chosen. They were in league with Savage!"

Eve drew her gun and left the bridge. Jon followed her but stopped and let her move toward Hunter, all while aiming his rifle at the former Time Master's head.

"Do you think I care?" Eve challenged. She had moved to within twenty feet of him. "You're a mad man. Whether or not you were driven by grief, you're a criminal!"

"And these pirates you joined up with aren't?" Jon could still hear Hunter through Eve's comms.

"They may be pirates but they aren't mass murderers, certainly not on the scale of you and your team. Especially Leonard Snart!"

"We didn't know it would destroy the Vanishing Point," Hunter told her. "We only wanted to end that control, that manipulation. We wanted to be able to plot our own course."

"Lies!" Eve screamed. "We protected the timeline. People like you are the ones that threatened it!"

"People like time pirates," Hunter reminded her. "That used to matter to you. The Time Masters gave Savage a timeship, did you know that? He used future tech to destroy London. I brought him to face justice and the Time Master let him go back to 2166. And no, I didn't get to save my family."

"So you lost two," Eve shot back. "I lost everything! I had no family but the Time Masters! I pledged my life to the Time Masters! And I cremated all but eleven of them. Now there are no Time Masters. I'm not a Time Master. But I will have my vengeance on you and your team. The destroyers of all this." She fired, but the shot went right through him.

"It's a hologram!" Jon shouted. "Be ready!"

Eve turned to run back but a blond woman in a white suit vaulted over a ruined wall and kicked her in the chest. Eve went down. Jon turned the gun on the woman, but then a shot hit his gun and he had to drop it. He ran to Eve. No woman was a match for him. In his comms, he heard Madden report the ship was empty.

* * *

Ray had been standing on the other medbay chair, so small as to go unnoticed. But finally, Sara gave the signal. Ray flew to the floor, growing to full size by the time he hit it. In person, Snart looked even worse. The lower left side of his face was gone, revealing a blackened tongue and teeth. Above that, his nose was missing and the skin around his right eye was ripped off, revealing what would have been an eye. But it was burned beyond recognition. He took a deep breath. "I'm ready," he whispered into the comms. He pulled up the regeneration platform and sat the shrunken stasis chamber on it. It looked something like a glasses case, but longer at ten inches. In reality it was over seven feet. He opened it then pointed his right fist at what was left of Snart while he used his left to turn off the stasis.

The light playing over him winked out, and Snart began to jerk as his body tried to breathe. Ray shrunk him small enough to fit in the chamber. Then as gently, but as quickly, as he could, he scooped him up and slipped him into the chamber and snapped it shut. Then he blew out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "I have him."

"Don't move!" a male voice shouted behind him.

Ray sucked in his stomach and slipped the stasis chamber between his clothes and his armor.

"Turn slowly," the man demanded.

Ray turned with his hands held out at the elbows. He smiled. "Hi." He didn't recognize this one.

"Where's the crispy critter?" the unknown pirate demanded, tipping his head back to indicate the chair behind Ray now.

"Oh, him," Ray said. "I figured he'd suffered enough. I freed him."

"Right," the pirate said, clearly mocking. "He just got up and shuffled down the corridor. Keep those hands up and step out of there. I'm taking you to the brig. Captain wants to kill you herself."

* * *

Amaya waited for the sounds of footsteps to move toward the front of the bridge. And the sound of a much heavier set of steps coming from the rear. She lifted the panel with one hand and touched her totem with the other, connecting to the spirit of an eagle as she jumped up and out of the compartment she'd been hiding in. She startled all nine of them. She switched to a rhino and barreled into the closest few before they could even lift their weapons. Nate went the other way. A couple got off a shot at him but it just deflected off his shiny, steel body. He punched one out and started in on the next.

Amaya switched to gorilla. Always good in a fist fight. She pummeled one into submission than went for the next. In a few minutes they had seven down and another two on the run. She switched to cheetah and let them get a head start back to the _Acheron_ before she pounced.

* * *

"I don't want to go to the brig," Ray told the pirate.

The man came closer with the gun. "You don't have a choice."

"I think I might," Ray said.

Just then the _Acheron_ rocked on her landing gear. Ray punched the guy. "Thanks, Mick. Good timing."

"Get out of there, Haircut!" was the reply.

Ray tapped the control on his chest and shrunk again, flying out of the medbay and down the corridor. But he didn't leave the ship. He turned left and entered the engine room. He grew and then opened the panel on the time drive and blasted it with a light beam. It sputtered and failed. "Just an insurance plan in case you don't destroy the whole ship, Mick."

"Haircut!" Mick yelled.

"I'm going!" Ray shrunk again and hurried out the ship. He went left and was just in time to see Amaya take down two pirates running back to their ship.

* * *

Sara fought both Eve Baxter and Jon Valor and, really, they weren't difficult. Valor fought like a pirate, all brawn, no skill, no technique. Baxter was a bit better, but no assassin. Sara went easy on them. She didn't move as quickly as she could or hit as hard as she could. She wanted to keep them busy here, with her, while she gave Ray time to get Snart back to the _Waverider_.

Mick decloaked and made a run at _Acheron_. Ray must have gotten free. Eve froze for a moment watching her ship take the beating Mick was dishing out. "Chronos!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Mick Rory," Sara corrected as she kicked the woman's legs out from under her.

* * *

Rip Hunter watched the turret of the cannon to the left of the _Acheron_ turn and take a few shots at the _TimeStalker_. So Rip jumped down behind him and hit him in the head with his pistol. "One cannon down," he reported.

"I've got the other one," Firestorm called out. He strafed the _Acheron_ behind Rip with _TimeStalker_ following closely, pounding the ship. Rip watched as a few pirates ran out of it. He picked them off then ducked as a shot just narrowly missed his head. He thought he saw someone else for a moment, but when he looked closer there was no one. He scanned the area and spotted the culprits who'd shot at him, he turned the turret in their direction and fired. A large piece of debris was kicked up into the air at least six feet and two pirates kicked up even higher only to come crashing back down on top of the sharp debris.

"Mr. Snart is safely back in stasis on the _Waverider_," Nate reported.

"Guys," Ray said. "I downloaded some of the medbay's data while I waited. He was in there longer than we thought. And they'd lowered it to eight-five percent."

Rip turned toward Sara and watched her step up her game. Valor was down in minutes. Then she had Baxter at her mercy. "Let's mop them up," Sara ordered as Baxter lay at her feet. "How many down?"

"We have seven in the brig here," Nate said.

Amaya was next. "Two here."

Rip had seen five go down so he reported that. "Two of which are dead."

"Two at the other cannon," Firestorm said, "still alive."

"Two here," Sara said. "That leaves two at large. Mick, back off the _Acheron_. Rip, you and Firestorm search the ship."

"Right," Firestorm replied. It got hot as Firestorm landed near Rip.

They entered the _Acheron_ together, moving slowly throughout the ship. They found one just waking up in the entrance to the medbay. Rip kicked him. "I'll get him to the brig," Rip told Firestorm. "Find the other and don't bother being subtle."

Firestorm grinned. He turned and moved on, throwing fireballs in front of him and into each door.

Rip grabbed his pirate and dragged him toward the bridge. He heard a scream from somewhere forward. "Got ya!" Firestorm taunted. Pretty soon the man was backing down the corridor toward Rip with Firestorm stalking him. "You can carry your friend there to the brig," Firestorm suggested.

Rip dropped the unconscious one and the obviously frightened pirate threw him over his shoulder, Rip escorted him as Firestorm separated into Jax and Dr. Stein. "Two down here. That makes twenty," Stein reported.

* * *

"Well pack 'em in the brig for now," Sara ordered standing over Valor and Baxter. Ray landed beside her. "These two need to be in the one on the _Waverider_."

"Let me kill her!" Mick shouted as he stormed toward them with his heat gun raised. She was just starting to wake up and she actually backed toward Sara as he approached. "I'm going to roast you slowly, you bitch!"

Sara stepped between them. "Mick, it's not for you to decide. We're going to save Snart. Then it's his decision."

Behind her, Ray picked up Baxter and flew her back toward _The Waverider_.

Valor started to stir. Sara lifted him by his collar. "But if you really need to kill someone," she told Mick. "You can have him."

Valor must have been conscious enough. "No, no, no. Not that."

Sara dropped him and walked away. Mick wasn't going to let him get away. And she wasn't sure Mick would kill him. Maim him, at least. She left him to it.

She went right to the medbay, though Nate blocked her. "I don't think you really want to see him like that. It's worse in person."

"He's alive?"

He nodded. "As alive as he could be in his condition."

Rip came over comms. "Seven pirates in the _Acheron_'s brig," he reported. "What are we going to do with them?"

Sara sighed and turned away from the medbay. "Jax, I need you to make sure that ship can't go anywhere or anywhen. No comms either. Let them fabricate food, water, clothing, no weapons."

"I'm on it."

They were only guilty of following Valor and Baxter. "Ray and Amaya, can you transfer the under-pirates to the _Acheron_?"

"On it," Amaya replied.

And the last part of that piece of the puzzle. "Rip, after all guests are in and the _Acheron_ is disabled, can you rig the brig to let them out in say five hours?"

"I can certainly do that," Rip replied. "So we're going to maroon them here in the Vanishing Point."

Sara smiled. "Yeah, oh and Dr. Stein, can you make sure to bring something back that's crucial to repair the _Acheron_ so they never can?"

"Oh, I think I can find a piece or two," Martin said.

"We'll leave once everyone is onboard."

"Got one more for ya!" Mick's voice on the comm's surprised her.

"Valor?" she asked.

"He's a bit shorter than I remember," Rip said.

"But all healed up," Mick retorted. "No regeneration. Make sure that don't work."

Rip took a moment to answer. "Okay."

_Yep_, Sara thought, _maimed him._

"You look like you could use a drink." That wasn't on comms. Sara turned and found Nate offering her a beer. She took it and let him guide her to the library, away from the medbay. She took a seat and a swig of her beer. Nate went to the computer and pulled up a photo of Leonard Snart. Then he turned. "He's gonna look like this again. Somehow. Let's just keep this guy in mind, okay."

Sara nodded. For now. Nate sat down across for her. "How did the guy we got to know running around with the Legion of Doom ever turn into the guy you guys all care so much about and who sacrificed himself for the team and free choice as we know it?"

Sara smiled. "I'm not sure. I think the Flash started it," she said. "But it was this team. When Mick betrayed us to the pirates—yeah, we'd tangled with the _Acheron_ and Jon Valor before—Snart chose us over his partner. But don't go thinking he's an all around good guy, Nate Heywood. He's not. He's a bad guy who did good. Who does good. Remember that."

Nate smiled. "I think I can manage that."

They'd finished the beers when Rip showed up in the doorway. "All aboard." He turned and looked down the corridor. "Mick is not in a state to pilot the _TimeStalker_, so I'll do it."

"Where are we going to get him help?" Nate asked.

"Central City," Rip replied, "in 3046."

"Is he going to be okay in the jump?" Sara asked.

"I'll be as gentle as I can. And Gideon will do everything in her power."

"That I will," the AI agreed. "Dr. Stein will be with him. I've helped him replicate everything we need to give Mr. Snart life support if it becomes necessary."

Nate stood up and offered her a hand. "I'm thinking we should strap in."

Sara stood. It was time to go bring Leonard Snart back to life.


	5. Chapter Four

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Four**

The _Waverider_ was disguised as much as possible. The outer appearance of the ship wasn't really a problem in 3046. There were plenty of flying ships and space-faring ships around. Time-travelling ships, not so much. All doors alongside the path from the cargo bay to the medbay were closed. Gideon was to stay quiet. Some things in the timeship were still advanced.

Rip led a group of three doctors to the medbay. The lead surgeon, Dr. Ferenz, looked over the tablet Dr. Stein handed her detailing everything wrong with Leonard Snart. She was a middle-aged woman with a serious face, and her graying hair was pulled back in a severe bun. She looked it over and handed it to Dr. Kupandra. Kupandra actually looked older with plenty of wrinkles and starkly white hair where there was hair. Male pattern baldness: still a thing in 3046. He frowned and handed it to a younger man, Dr. Harriman, full head of hair and a confident air. His eyebrows went up and up as he read the tablet.

"This is a dead man," Ferenz said.

"Dying," Stein corrected.

"Only the stasis is keeping him alive," Kupandra added. "There are at least five things working against his survival. Asphyxiation being highest on that list."

Ferenz took the tablet back from "He would need nearly his entire body debrided." She handed it back to Stein. "There are laws about that."

"He has a viable heart," Harriman said. "Brain is intact. By those criteria, he's alive."

"No one has ever performed a regeneration on more than fifty percent of any patient," Kupandra argued. "This would be upward of eighty, if he had a full body. As it is, we're looking at sixty to sixty-five percent of what's left."

"I don't appreciate you talking about him like he's a piece of meat," Sara said. Rip had wanted her to stay on the bridge. "He's a human being and a hero. He deserves to live."

Ferenz turned toward Sara and her expression softened. "My apologies. I can see he means a lot to you all. Still, if we put him through regeneration, we could kill him even after he's whole. The shock to his system could be catastrophic. That viable heart could give out."

"He's dead if you don't do it," Rip told her. "He has nothing to lose."

"Do you?" Ferenz asked him. She turned to Sara. "What about you?"

Rip put his hands on his hips. "We lost him once already. Thought he was dead for a year. We've done our grieving. But we owe him our lives. We owe him the chance."

"I'll do it." Everyone turned to Harriman.

"Dr. Harriman—," Ferenz started.

Harriman held up a hand. "This will solve our funding issues. If we're successful, we'll have more patients than we can handle. Not to mention we'll advance the field of medicine so far forward, we'll probably get a Nobel."

Ferenz thought it over. She handed the tablet to Harriman. "You really think you can pull this off?"

Harriman nodded. "I do."

Rip silently thanked the cockiness of young surgeons. "How long do you need for your preparations?"

Harriman looked at the tablet. "Seventy-two hours. This kind of regeneration is like a fight scene in a movie: fully choreographed. In this condition, it's going to be very complicated. The first part we need to regenerate is buried underneath his ribcage. Which also has to be regenerated. And we still have to figure out how to get him from here into our operating chamber."

"I think we can help with that," Sara said. "Portable stasis."

"Portable?" Dr. Kupandra. "I'd like a look at that."

Rip held out his arm to show them out. "I think we could probably leave it with you once our friend has no more need of it."

* * *

"Three days," Sara repeated as the doctors left. She really wanted it to be today, or better yet, yesterday.

"He's safe, Sara," Rip told her. "He'll still be safe in three days."

"Yeah." Sara nodded. "We're going to have to sedate Mick though."

Rip chuckled beside her. "He's not known for his patience. However, he handled himself very patiently back in the Vanishing Point."

Sara laughed and turned back for the bridge. "Right up until he burned Valor's legs off."

"I took him to the medbay after," Mick said, having overheard.

"Three days, Mick," Sara told him. "You have to hold it together for three days."

Mick growled. "I'm gonna need more beer."

* * *

Not everyone wanted to see it. Ray understood that. Seeing Snart in his post-explosion condition was too hard for most of them. Martin Stein being there was no surprise really. Scientific wonders were right up both of their alleys. Mick, on the other hand, was a surprise. Still, he'd taken Snart's 'death' hard. He'd known him the longest. And, like Mick had taken Ray's, Snart had taken Mick's place, too.

"We're about to begin," Dr. Kupandra announced. "Please take your seats. And for those in the media, remember to respect the patient's privacy and blur his face from the start, please. This procedure has been orchestrated and will be supervised by Dr. William Harriman. The anesthesiologist is Dr. Vera FitzMarin. The patient's injuries were caused by a massive explosion. It is believed the patient was ejected from the epicenter of that explosion but as you can see, he still suffered third and fourth degree burns over most his body and the loss of his limbs. The patient shows two of three criteria of viability, making this procedure permitted under the law. However, this procedure has never been done on a patient with injuries this severe. If we succeed, this man will get his life back. And this procedure will be proven to be safe and effective for many patients with life-threatening injuries in the future."

Ray sat between Martin and Mick. The large darkened window in front of them lightened and became clear. Leonard Snart was floating inside a chamber, tubes filled with red blood were going into his chest. "Oxygenated blood," Martin whispered. "They're oxygenating his blood then feeding it back to his heart." There was a similar tube going into the back of his head. Ray had seen the records himself while he waited in the _Acheron_. There were a lot of major blood vessels in the neck, and his neck was badly burnt.

Dr. Kupandra kept his narration brief now that the 'procedure' was starting. "The first priority is to rebuild the respiratory system, thus satisfying the third criteria of viability."

The next three hours were grueling. Thin, robotic arms worked from above to open Snart's chest, irrigate it and then regenerate lungs. The neck was next. Superheated gas had burnt his trachea as well. Then the lower parts of his face. Burnt skin, muscle, and bone were excised and new ones regenerated. Snart's respiratory system was recreated, just as his hand had been before. And the computerized display on the wall beside the window showed when he started to breathe. It had been hard to watch, but Ray felt some of his worry fall away with that first breath.

The rest of the procedure was gruesome. Ray found himself looking away quite a bit and focusing on that computerized display. Dr. Kupandra kept up the play-by-play. Large sections of Snart's body were cut away and rebuilt. What was left of his left arm was amputated at the shoulder, the right at the midway point of the upper arm. But even then the skin and muscle around it was removed and regenerated. But as the third hour came, Ray started watching again. Because that's when Leonard Snart really started to look human again. Robotic arms had also extended from below to deal with Snart's back, but most of the tubes were gone. The only ones that remained were actually in his right forearm. "Fluids and anesthesia," Martin whispered. "Astonishing! It's really him."

Dr. Kupandra moved to stand in front of the window. "We have confirmation that the patient is alive and well." Applause broke out in the room. The window went dark and Ray assumed they were taking Snart to Recovery.

"They did it," Mick said, beside Ray.

Ray smiled. "Yeah, they did. We get our Snart back."

As the media filed out, Dr. Harriman met the three of them and waved that they should wait. Ray started to worry. Maybe something had gone wrong after all.

The doctor waited until they were the last four in the room. "I just wanted let you know what to expect now," he said.

"He's good now," Mick accused.

"Yes, physically," Harriman assured them. "But obviously that explosion was traumatic. Imagine one second going through a horrendous explosion and the next you're perfectly fine and healthy. Now throw in the exhaustion that most people feel after having a large limb regenerated, let alone everything he got. You'd need to rest and to sleep. But often that trauma makes that difficult so you have a much harder recovery."

"Sleep deprivation can do strange things to the mind," Martin summarized.

"Precisely," Harriman confirmed. "You'd need to process that trauma. I've seen patients leave here so happy we gave them their legs back only to end up divorced alcoholics because that trauma kept sneaking back up on them." He took a breath. "Be patient with him but try and get him to rest as much as possible. He probably needs a good week and a half. He may need to see how he got from where he was to where he is so his mind make sense of it. He's going to need some friends for a while. But I'm thinking he has a few people who care enough to help him."

"I can think of a few," Ray said. "If he can blow himself up for us, we can do anything he needs us to do to help him."

"When do we get him back?" Mick asked.

"Tomorrow morning. We have to keep him under observation due to the anesthesia. We have to walk him down from it, wake up him up gently. It would be good if one of you can stay the night."

"I'll stay," Ray offered.

"I need to see him," Mick said.

"Alright," Dr. Harriman said. "Come with me."

He led them out of the room to an elevator. They went up three floors and stepped out into a warmly lit corridor. He stopped at a desk and got them visitor badges. Then he led them to room 46. "They'll be nurses in and out through the night, just keeping tabs on him, checking vitals and the like. There's a sofa you can rest on Mr. Palmer. Mr. Rory and Dr. Stein, just return to the desk and someone will show you out. And be careful on the streets. Every once and awhile we get velociraptors coming around at night."

"Velociraptors?" Martin repeated.

"I've got you, Professor," Mick offered.

"You're badges will get you in. It was a pleasure, gentleman." Harriman shook hands with each of them.

"Thank you," Martin said. "It was truly breath-taking."

Mick opened the door and went in. Ray put a hand on Martin's arm to stop him. "Let's just give him a minute."

After a few minutes, Ray slipped in then waved Martin in. The room was dimly lit. "You alright, big guy."

"I will be tomorrow morning," Mick said. He touched Snart's perfectly whole and unburnt arm. "He's real. This is real."

"Yes," Martin assured him. "Yes it is. And this one won't try to kill us."

Ray tried to sleep that night but he woke up every time the door opened. Nurses mostly, checking vitals and such. But sometimes Harriman or Dr. FitzMarin would come in and check on him personally. They always reassured Ray that Snart was doing well.

When morning came, Ray was still groggy. "Sleep well?" Dr. Harriman asked.

"Not really," Ray said.

Harriman smiled. "Just remember, he going to feel that times a hundred. Don't expect much out of him this morning." He handed Ray a bag. "Instructions are in the bag."

Ray nodded. Snart eyes fluttered open then shut again. Nurses helped him into a futuristic wheelchair. He sort of flopped into it and swayed like he might fall out. Ray yawned and stretched. He really wanted a coffee. And a nice long nap.

"Your captain said she's sending a drop ship for you," Dr. Harriman said. "The nurse will get you both to the roof."

"Time to go home, Snart," Ray told him as he watched the jump ship land. "It's a long story, but we're going to get you through it."

Snart didn't answer. Ray helped buckle him in and Jax lifted off.

There was no fanfare when they returned to the ship. The lights were low and the rest of the team watched from a distance, apparently Mick and Martin had passed along the doctor's advice. Sleep is what Snart needed right now. Ray and Jax took his arms and half walked and half dragged him to what had been his room, then was Nate's and now was Snart's room again. The box that held his possessions had been moved from the cargo bay to one corner. There was a deck of cards on the desk. Jax pulled back the covers, and they put Snart in the bed. Ray covered him up and turned to find Sara in the doorway.

"Looks like you could use some sleep, too," she whispered to Ray.

Ray yawned again, so deep that his eyes watered up. He stepped into the corridor. "Nurses kept coming in and out and in and out."

"I'll stay with him for awhile," she said. "Rip's going to tractor us out into deep space to ride this out. Once he's well enough, we have to go back where started, and fix what we broke. Somehow.

"Yeah," Jax whispered beside. "Gray said a velociraptor chased him and Rory last night. Mick scared it off with his heat gun."

"He had that in the hospital?" Ray said while yawning. Then he remembered and handed her the bag.

"Go get some sleep," Sara told him. "We'll put the velociraptors back where they belong. Eventually."


	6. Chapter Five

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Five**

Leonard Snart burned. He hurt. And now, he could have named those feelings if he'd been awake or lucid. But this was familiar, if unwanted. He was able to think, as one does when sleeping, not necessarily consciously thinking or logically thinking, but thinking, seeing, feeling, as one does in a dream. Though he couldn't see, or hear in this dream. He could only feel and think. He was dead. This was dead. It hurt, it burned, and it was alone. He desperately wanted it to be different. So he opened his eyes.

The pain disappeared. The burning was gone. But his eyelids were heavy. They closed again. Once again, the darkness fell. And it brought with it the explosion, the blue flames slamming into him, filling his nostrils, his throat, his lungs, throwing him back in the darkness as his eyes failed until he landed, broken, burnt, in pain. And that's where he stayed until with a gasp, he forced his eyes open again.

Again, the pain left him. He turned, wanting to sit up, but he fell and winced at the impact as he hit the footrest then the floor. He felt a tug on his left arm and found a tube going into it, connected to a bag on the bed above him. He pulled it free from his arm as he sat up. He was in a near empty room. It felt familiar. Like home.

But he couldn't be home. And he was so incredibly tired. It had a taken a lot of energy to lift himself from the floor. He was dead. That he remembered. This couldn't be real. Maybe it was a trick. Could the Oculus trick him? The Time Masters? Maybe they stopped him just after the explosion started. Maybe they had him and were trying to trick him into telling them something. Maybe they were trying to turn him into someone like Chronos.

The door seemed so far away. The ceiling so high. His vision blurred and he yawned deeply. So deeply that his eyes watered. He wanted to close his eyes but he forced them to stay open. He shook his head until his eyes focused. Maybe if he left this room, he could sleep without the explosion, the pain.

Using every bit of strength he could muster—and it wasn't much—he got to his feet and lurched toward the door. When it opened he slumped to the floor in the corridor and closed his eyes. Blue flame, heat, pain. He opened them again. He needed to leave the ship. This looked so much like the _Waverider._ He used the wall to stand again and leaned on it as he moved down the corridor. His eyes swam and he felt heavy. He yawned and missed the steps so he fell, and the pain woke him. His leg hurt. How could he hurt now? This was a trick. Wasn't it?

He tried to get back up, but his elbow hurt, too, and he didn't want to hurt. Not here. Not anymore. He heard voices, so he crawled between two crates and pulled his legs in, hissing as the pain washed over him.

* * *

"I just had to use the restroom," Martin said. "It was only for a minute. He was right there when I left." He pointed to the bed. The discarded IV bag's tube was hanging near the floor.

"He must have woken up," Amaya said. "Gideon, do you know where Mr. Snart is?"

"Mr. Snart is in the cargo bay. He is injured."

"Injured?" Martin repeated.

"He may have tripped on the stairs," Amaya guessed. He was probably still groggy. The doctor thought he'd sleep for a week. The others were sleeping. She'd gotten up to relieve Martin. She grabbed the injection syringe from the desk, reasoning that Snart might need sedation. He was probably disoriented. "Let's go find him."

Martin led the way and Amaya followed. Snart—this Snart—wouldn't know her. But Martin would be a familiar face.

There were a few drops of blood on the floor at the bottom of stairs. "Mr. Snart?" Martin called. Amaya followed the blood and found him wide-eyed and tucked between two crates. His eyes weren't focused. He cradled his arm.

"You're hurt," she said softly. Blood trickled from a cute on his temple. "Let us help you."

He tried to pull back tighter. "Let me try." Martin said. She traded him spots. "Leonard," he tried. "You should be sleeping. You're body needs rest. Let us help you. We'll get you fixed up in the medbay then back to bed."

Snart's eyebrows furrowed, but he didn't try to move away. Amaya slowly shifted one of the crates. She found an opening then reached in with the injector. Snart collapsed against the crates. Martin stood and helped her move crates. Between the two of them—Martin had Snart's shoulders while Amaya carried his legs—then got him into a medbay chair. Amaya put the cuff on his wrist. Gideon diagnosed a few deep bruises and a cut on his head. Nothing serious. He was healed in just a few minutes.

This time, Amaya helped Martin get Snart in a fireman's carry and made sure he got back to Snart's room without falling. She arranged the sheets and blankets, then Martin let him down gently. Amaya reinserted the IV and then trucked Snart in for another hopefully uneventful sleep.

Martin stretched then bid her good night. Amaya picked up her book from the desk then sat down to read. She hoped, for the rest of the team's sake, that what she'd seen of Snart was just the exhaustion and confusion and not something more permanent.

* * *

Nate opened the door to Snart's room, expecting to find him sleeping and Amaya reading. Instead, Amaya was trying to lift a six-foot-something Snart onto the bed by herself. An injection syringe lay on the floor near her chair. Nate hurried to help her. "He woke up?"

"Twice," she replied as they shifted him into position in the bed. "First time was when Martin stepped out. He got all the way to the cargo bay. Actually, he fell down the steps and hurt himself. This time he just fell off the bed."

He had to have woken up pretty violently to fall off the bed. "Thought the doc said he'd sleep for a week," Nate told her. "He's about six days early."

"Something's not right," Amaya said. "I sedated him in the cargo bay. It would only now be wearing off. It's like something is waking him up."

Nate thought for a moment. Snart had blown up, right? Nate had been blown up, back in 1942. Between Gideon and Ray's serum, he was healed, but he'd dreamt about getting blown up for a few nights after. Snart had been in a much bigger explosion. Maybe his nightmares were worse. "Gideon, is he dreaming?"

"Not at the moment," the AI told him, lowering the volume of her voice. "Mis Jiwe has sedated him again. But he was dreaming before, up to the point when he woke up. Both times."

"What was he dreaming?" Amaya asked.

"I'm afraid he dreamt of the destruction of the Oculus and the aftermath to himself."

Nate was curious. The others had probably witnessed some of it. Snart was sedated anyway. "Can you show us the explosion?"

"Nate?" Amaya asked, confused.

The screen behind the bed changed from a snowscape to a video looking down on Snart with his arm in some kind of machinery. There was a blue glow under the platform he was standing on.

"Shut it down!" screamed another man off to one side. He was flanked by about a dozen soldiers. He must have been a Time Master.

"There are no strings on me!" Snart said then the whole thing exploded. Blue flames filled the screen then it went black. The camera must have been damaged. The screen lit up again and Nate could tell this was a view from the _Waverider_ as it left the area. The initial blast flared out then got smaller with distance, but new explosions spread to nearly every area of the Vanishing Point.

"How did he survive that?" Nate wondered aloud.

"The blast threw him away from the Wellspring," Gideon replied. She brought up the first video but slowed it down. First the blue flames came from inside the machine and under the platform. Then, as the flames enveloped Snart, he was shot backwards away from the machine. His left arm appeared to be gone by the time the camera went out.

"That's how Captain Baxter found him when she showed up," Amaya concluded. "She found him minutes before he would have died."

No wonder he was having nightmares, Nate thought. If he was aware of any of that. "As tired as he is," Nate guessed, "he probably couldn't even think straight let alone walk straight. You know, at first, I thought I'd have trouble trusting him. After what 2014 Snart was like."

"I can't see that Snart when I look at him," Amaya said. She tucked the blanked around Snart's shoulders. "Not after seeing that and how he was when we got him back."

"Yeah," Nate agreed. "Hey, you hungry for breakfast? You sedated him so he's gonna be out, at least for an hour or so."

* * *

And that was how the next two days played out. One team-member would sit with him, try to calm him when he woke and up, and end up sedating him more times than not. In the end, what sleep Snart got was fractured and did not leave him with enough rest to recover. His skin had gone sallow and there were dark circles around his eyes.

Sara decided she was going to try something different. She wasn't going to sedate him, but she wasn't going to let him fall out of bed or leave the room and get hurt either. Twenty minutes after the last sedative wore off, Snart fought to open his eyes. She tried to calm him and shush him back to sleep. It worked.

For about five minutes. He jerked awake as if something had terrified him. He slipped off the bed to the floor, without falling, but it wasn't graceful either. Then he saw her and he backed up until he was under the desk.

Sara got down on the floor and sat beside him. He couldn't leave the room because she was on one side and the wall was on the other. She tried to take his hand but he pulled it away. So she just touched his arm. She could feel his ragged pulse pounding through his veins. She didn't say anything. She just wanted him to get comfortable and realize that whatever had scared him in his sleep was not there now. So she stayed and she waited.

His brows furrowed. His eyes focused and then lost that focus as each tried to go a different way. He yawned so hard it left tears in his eyes. His hands shook. His head nodded forward then shot back up as he fought to stay awake.

About thirty minutes in, he whispered, "Is this real?" If she hadn't been sitting close to him, she might not have heard it at all.

She turned sideways and held his arm tighter. "It is real," she told him, whispering, too. "You're safe. You're well."

"I'm dead," he argued. "It hurt. It burned."

So he remembered. This wasn't going to be easy. She needed him to sleep to get in a better state of mind so he could understand what had happened.

"It's seemed like you died," she told him. "But you didn't. We got you and got you healed up."

Snart shook his head, barely moving it from side to side. "Maybe it's a trick. The Time Masters—"

She didn't let him finished. "There are no more Time Masters. You did that. You saved us and you destroyed the Vanishing Point."

She wasn't sure he heard her. "The Oculus then—"

"The Oculus is gone," she assured him. "It doesn't control us anymore."

His eyes focused on her for a minute. "I want to believe you," he said. "You look like Sara."

A tear slipped down Sara's cheek. She touched his face. "I am Sara. You just need to sleep. It will all make sense once you're rested. I'll stay with you."

His expression changed. His eyes pleaded with her. "I can't," he breathed. "I'm dead. It hurts. It burns."

Then she realized. He didn't just remember. He dreamed it. "Leonard," she tried telling him, "it's just a dream. A memory. But it's over now." She lifted his hand. "See, no burns. You're healed. The burning and the pain are over. You're safe now."

By the look on his face, she could tell he wanted to believe her. But he didn't. And he was losing his fight to stay awake. "It can't be real," he breathed. "I'm dead."

"You're alive," she told him. "It will make sense if you sleep."

"Promise?"

Sara nodded. "I promise."

"Stay with me."

"I will." His head lolled against the wall as his eyes closed. Sara wiped the tears from her eyes with her free hand. She still held on to one of his. It lay slack in hers, and she hoped he was having a different dream, a happy dream. She mused that what she held now was his third right hand. No callouses, no scars. There was no outward sign left that he'd been so burnt, so near death. His hand tightened in hers and his breathing changed. And she realized that he was still so near death when he slept, but he needed to sleep before he lost his mind. She reached up to the desktop and found the injector. Sedated wasn't quite the same as sleep but, most times, it kept him down a little longer once it wore off. And she needed help to figure out how to help him. His body went slack and she laid him on the floor, then maneuvered him back into the bed. She wiped her eyes again and left the room.


	7. Chapter Six

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Six**

Sara gathered the others on the bridge. "He's dreaming the blast, the burning. That's why he won't sleep."

Stein nodded. "I can't imagine he was aware of much past the initial moment of the explosion."

"Maybe," Nate argued, "But he knew what he was about to do. His imagination could probably fill in the rest."

Sara went on. "He kept saying it hurt and it burned."

Amaya spoke up then. "He spoke to you?"

Sara nodded. "He's confused. He asked if this was real. If it wasn't some kind of trick by the Time Masters or the Oculus. But he didn't want to sleep because—" She paused. It was hard to say what he'd said. "He said he was dead there. And that it hurt and it burned."

"If he was dreaming being dead," Jax asked, "why would he feel anything?"

Stein waved a hand. "It's not likely he can think straight at all in his condition. Lack of sleep or sleep deprivation can cause difficulties in concentration, forgetfulness, hallucinations. It can cause death it if continues or the subject operates heavy machinery, through higher risk of accidents."

"Fortunately, he's not going anywhere or operating heavy machinery," Nate quipped.

Rip had stayed quiet up until then. "Gideon, does he always dream of the explosion?"

"He often begins with the explosion," Gideon replied. "But it always ends with darkness and a sense of paralysis."

Rip turned to the side. "He couldn't have consciously known about the stasis. But we know his brain registered pain. Perhaps his dreams are pulling from his subconscious memories."

They were quiet for a while after that. Sara thought Rip had it right. Stuck in darkness, burning and hurting. That was why he thought he was dead. Snart had no context for what had happened after the explosion beyond what his brain had perceived in stasis. He had no basis for believing he had survived.

"The doctor said we might have to show him how he got from where he was to where is now," Ray supplied, breaking the silence. "Maybe it will help him make sense of all this. Then he can put those dreams in context. In the past."

"Showing him images of himself in that state could traumatize him further," Martin warned.

Sara weighed that. Snart had endured many traumas in his life. He'd come out of those more or less sane. Continuing to lose sleep, on the other hand, was obviously breaking him. What she knew of Snart before was a man standing in the brig, leaning against the wall and tucking his handless wrist in his other elbow with no outward sign of the agony he must have been feeling. Snart did not show his vulnerabilities. That he was doing so now meant he was already losing his grip on reality. He needed context.

"I think we should show him," she decided.

* * *

When Leonard Snart woke again, the darkness and pain left him with difficulty. His eyes refused to stay open. He had to move. He slipped out of the bed but couldn't quite stand. Once again, he ended up on the floor. Someone helped him back to a sitting position. He shook his head to clear his vision. Sara was there. At least it looked like Sara. There was a Rip, too.

Sara sat down next to him and Rip sat on his other side. "We planned to have this conversation after you were more rested," Rip told him. "But that doesn't seem likely so we're having it now."

Sara touched his arm and Snart turned his head her look at her. She was pretty. Too bad this wasn't real. Maybe he could just pretend it was. It was better than the other place. "Leonard," she said. "You didn't die. You came very close to it, but you didn't die. The explosion burnt you badly, but it also threw you away from the Wellspring. Someone found you there and put you in stasis so you didn't die."

Stasis? But he remembered the flames all around him, in him. And flying.

Rip put something in Snart's lap so he turned back to see what it was. It was a screen with a picture on it. "This is you," Rip said, pointing to a black thing on one side of the picture. "You're in the medbay, in stasis, on the _Acheron_. This is why you didn't die. You were dying, but the stasis stopped it."

Snart tried hard to focus but the thing in the picture didn't look like him. It didn't look human. He blinked hard a few times. Rip zoomed in. Then Snart could make out his goggles. The ones he'd been where when...

"We got you from the _Acheron_, and took you to a hospital far in the future," Sara went on. She changed the picture. Now the black thing—he—was floating in the middle of the screen. To the side was a computer image a body. His body.

"We're going to speed this up," Rip said. "Do you remember when I regenerated your hand here in the medbay?"

In the video, robot arms moved quickly around and under the thing that was him. They cut him, rebuilt him, cut pieces off him and made new arms, legs, a face. Snart held up his hands. They shook but there were no scars. He touched his face. The video ended. Sara touched the screen again and it became a mirror. He could see his own face, though he looked as tired as he felt. But he wasn't burnt. And he didn't hurt. "You regenerated me?" he asked.

"Most of you," Rip admitted. "Now there's nothing wrong with you that a lot of sleep won't fix."

Snart touched the screen to get the first image. "But when I close my eyes," he said, "I'm here."

Rip changed the screen to the end of the video. "We're hoping," he told him, "that that will be different now that you've seen the other side of it."

Snart wanted to think that was true. If this was real, and he thought maybe it could be, then maybe the other place _was_ just a dream. A memory. And he was tired. He felt it all the way to his bones. But he also felt hungry. "Could I eat something before—"

"Uh, yeah," Sara answered. "What would you like?"

Snart thought about that. If what they said was true, he hadn't eaten in a long time. He should probably opt for something healthy. But one thing kept coming to his mind. "Reese's Peanut Butter Cup."

Rip took the tablet and stood up. "Alright. Not what I expected. One peanut butter cup, then sleep, yes?"

Well, that certainly made this feel more real. If it wasn't real, if he was just making it up to feel better, he wouldn't have to pay for the thing. Maybe if he told himself he was alive over and over, he'd believe it when he closed his eyes. He nodded.

"I'll have the other one," Sara said, catching Rip before he left. When he was gone, she scooted a little closer. "Why the floor?"

"Can't seem to make it to the door." She chuckled beside him, so he explained more. "Have to move to wake up," he admitted. "It feels like I can't move there."

"That's a memory, too," Sara said. "She wasn't nice, the woman who found you. Once she realized it was you and not one of her Time Master friends, she messed with the stasis. Lowered its efficiency. Still kept you alive but let you feel something. The pain centers in your brain activated. So your subconscious may be interpreting that into your nightmares."

Nightmares. Is that all it was? He remembered having nightmares after his father came back from prison. He remembered being scared in those nightmares. He didn't remember hurting. Not like how he felt in these dreams—or memories.

The door opened and Mick entered. "Hey, buddy," he said. He had a plate with two peanut butter cups on it. "Couldn't get actual Reese's. These are Gideon's."

Snart reached a shaking hand and took one. Sara took the other. He took a bite. It tasted so good, that mix of peanut butter and melting chocolate. He closed his eyes to savor it, and the explosion didn't come. Maybe that was a good sign. He finished the candy then tried to stand up. Mick grabbed an arm and lifted him.

"You look terrible," Mick told him.

Snart smiled. "Better than before the hospital."

Mick grunted. He and Sara had helped him into his bed again. "Maybe scoot closer to the wall this time," Sara suggested.

Leonard Snart closed his eyes. _I'm alive. I'm alive. I'm—_ As he slipped into darkness he fell back into light. He found himself playing cards with Sara in her room. But something was off. He heard a thud. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

"Don't try to distract me," she said.

He folded is hand. "We need to find somewhere to hide." He went to the door.

"Why do we need to find somewhere to hide?" At least she sounded alarmed now.

"Alexa"

* * *

Mick sat with him this time and when nothing happened after an hour, Sara smiled. "Gideon, is he still asleep?"

"He is," Gideon replied.

"No explosions?" Nate asked.

"Not yet," the AI said.

Sara sat up straighter. "What you do mean, not yet?"

"Mr. Snart is currently dreaming of the two of you hiding beneath the deck plating here on the bridge."

"So?" Nate tried, "That's better, right?"

Rip didn't answer exactly. "Seems he's still strolling down Memory Lane. That is how the two of you avoided capture by the Time Masters, isn't it?"

Sara nodded. "It is."

"So if this is an accurate dream," Amaya surmised, "he's still going to blow up."

Leave it to Ray to find something positive to say. "On the bright side, he'll get a couple of hours before that happens."

"If only there was a way to get him to dream something other than memories," Martin remarked. "Or at least happier memories?"

"Did he have any happy memories?" Jax asked. "But yeah, if he could control his dreams that would work. I have a cousin who can do that. She lucked into one night. Said she was dreaming she walked in to the living room and they—she had siblings—were making pillow and blanket forts."

"Laurel and I did that when we were kids," Sara said, remembering.

"Yeah, but she was older when she had this dream," Jax told them. "So she thought to herself—in the dream—'This is stupid. Let's rewind and do something different.' She actually went backwards out of the room and had a different dream. Said she could think her way out of nightmares after that."

"Great, so we just have to tell him to think inside his dream and think his way out of the nightmare," Nate said.

Jax deflated. "Not as easy as that. I can never seem to remember it to try it when I'm actually dreaming."

"Right," Ray said, drawing out the word.

"Ray?" Sara said. "Want to share with the class?"

"What if he didn't have to remember?" Ray said. "What if someone could do that for him? Gideon, you can see our dreams. Can you talk to him in his dreams?"

"I can only observe his dreams or talk to him as I'm talking to you. I've no conduit to talk to his subconscious mind."

Stein started to smile. "I think we can cook up some kind of interface," Martin suggested.

Ray beamed. "To the lab!"

* * *

As expected, Leonard Snart woke up after only a few hours of sleep. Mick kept him from falling of the bed. He felt better, in spite of that dream. He was still tired but no so bone-tired exhausted as he had been. His head felt clearer. He could focus his eyes. He still yawned but he could stand on his own now.

"Still the explosion in the end, huh?" Mick asked.

Snart nodded. Now that he could think more clearly—and that meant Rip and Sara had told the truth—he had some questions. He leaned back against the bed. "How long was I dead—in stasis?"

"About a year for us," Mick answered. "Longer for you."

"Why?"

"Time is different in the Vanishing Point."

That made sense. He'd told him that much before. Snart nodded. "Why a year for you?"

"Time Bastard lady didn't tell us until about a week ago."

Hadn't Sara said the person who found him wasn't nice. That fit then. "Seems like yesterday to me."

"I'm glad you're back," Mick admitted. "Don't do that again." That was just about as much sentiment as Snart had ever heard from him. Except that time Mick had told Snart he'd always been his hero. Oh, maybe that was after...

"I'll try not to make it a habit," Snart replied. He yawned again. But he felt he needed to stretch his muscles before he tried sleeping again. He didn't want to try it at all but it _had_ helped. He felt more like himself. He looked down. He was wearing what looked like hospital pajamas. He couldn't go out in those. "Do I still have clothes?"

"Saved what we could," Mick said. "Gave some of your stuff to Lisa."

"Lisa," Snart repeated. His poor sister. She was alone the whole time. "She thinks I'm dead."

"You'll tell her otherwise," Mick said. He walked to the corner, picked up a crate and sat it on the bed. Snart put aside thoughts of his sister as he sifted through it, finding pants and a sweater, socks but no shoes. The ones he'd been wearing were definitely gone.

"I'll need shoes," Snart said. "I'm really hungry."

"I'll make you a pair," Mick offered. "Get dressed. Then we'll eat."

Mick left so Snart got dressed. It just seemed so surreal to be doing such an ordinary thing when he'd very recently—to his mind—blown himself up. But a year—for them—had passed. He had a lot to catch up on.

Mick returned with two shoes just like he'd lost—when he'd lost his feet apparently. He'd seen his own hand regenerated, so why was it so disconcerting to think that nearly every part of him had been regenerated? How many people could say they'd had five hands in their lifetime?

He yawned again but his stomach growled. He felt food was more important than more sleep right now and definitely more important than nightmares of burning. "Who are the new people?"

Mick led him to the galley but Snart was able to get there under his own power. "Pretty is a historian," Mick told him. "Can turn his body into metal."

So he was a metahuman. "Pretty have a name?" he asked. He was quite familiar with Mick's use of nicknames.

"Nate," he answered. "Amaya Jiwe was with the Justice Society in 1942. Can fight like animals. She's a friend." He turned to the wall. "What do you want?"

"Justice Society," Snart repeated, sneering. "Never heard of it. Pancakes. With peanut butter."

"And syrup. I remember." Mick ordered them as Snart sat down.

Speaking of new people, Snart thought as Nate and Amaya both walked into the galley. "Whoa," Nate said. "Look who's up." He held out a hand. "I'm Nate Heywood, resident historian and man of steel."

"Bet that's a neat trick," Snart replied, shaking the man's hand.

"Amaya," the attractive black woman said. "You know three hours is not quite enough."

Mick sat a plate of warm pancakes in front of him. "It's enough for pancakes," Snart told her.

She offered him a smile. "Would you like milk with that?" She didn't really wait for an answer. Besides, what else would anyone drink with pancakes?

Nate's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "Peanut butter?"

"Don't knock it 'til you've tried it," Snart replied. Amaya sat a cup of milk in front of him. He wondered why these two had joined the team. Had they lost people? Other than him? He turned to Mick. "Who isn't here?"

"Ah," Mick said, thinking. "Kendra and Carter."

Snart put down his fork. "Did Savage—" He pulled a finger across his neck.

"No," Mick said. "We killed Savage. Three times. At the same time. They decided to go live their lives."

_That_ was going to need explaining, Snart thought. He looked to the new people. "You took their places?"

"Not exactly," Nate replied. "You've missed quite a bit. While you apparently saved the world from the Time Masters, and the others from Vandal Savage, we all recently saved reality from the Legion of Doom."

_Legion of Doom?_

"He also saved free will," Mick said, sticking up for him.

"Though we did break time to do it," Amaya added, as if she hadn't heard.

"Broke time?" Snart asked. "What's that like?"

"Dinasaurs in 2017," Mick replied, then took a swig of beer, Mick's idea of breakfast.

"And Big Ben in Los Angeles," Nate added. "It's a mess."

"Where are we now?"

"3046," Mick said.

"In orbit," Amaya corrected. She sat down with her own plate of pancakes and a jar of peanut butter. "Thought I'd try it."

Snart finished his pancakes with milk while Nate told stories of the last year. So the Legion of Doom included the man who killed Sara's sister, the man who had Sara killed, himself from 2014, and the speedster that killed Barry Allen's mother. He didn't remember any of it but they said they'd wiped his memory when they put him back. And baby Snart had been returned, too.

When Snart yawned again and then a few minutes later, Amaya suggested he get back to bed.

He knew he needed it. He could feel that. The energy rush from the pancakes had left him and he felt jittery. But he knew what awaited him when he closed his eyes.

"Ah, there you are." Martin Stein entered the galley behind Snart, with Ray by his side.

The latter smiled wide. "Good to see you up and about."

"Mr. Snart was just returning to his room," Gideon said.

"Thanks, Mother," Snart smirked. That AI knew what he dreamed.

"We have something we think will help," Ray told him. He handed Snart a small device with a couple of little lights.

"Just put it on your temple before you fall asleep," Stein explained. "If all goes well, it will be a much more pleasant rest."

Snart gave in. His last nap had been better but still ended where all the others had. It had apparently taken three hours for him to blow up. Funny thing was he remembered what he dreamed, especially as it had happened for real before the explosion. He used to not remember his dreams at all.

Mick walked him back to his room, but this time, he was left alone to sleep. They were, apparently, more confident in Ray's gadget than he was. Still, he put it on his temple and laid down. He repeated to himself that he was alive. He fell asleep quickly but found himself back in the painful, burning darkness.

Then he felt a touch on his arm. "You can open your eyes, Mr. Snart." That was Gideon's voice. "It's time to get up."

Leonard Snart was asleep in his room on the _Waverider_, but in his sleeping mind, he opened his eyes. A brunette with long hair was standing beside him. He was in a medbay chair. "Stand up, Mr. Snart." Gideon's voice again. He'd never seen this woman before but thought her face had familiar features.

He stood up and looked around. It was the medbay but the colors were different. And what he saw when he looked back at the chair sent chills through him. His burned and broken self lay under the playing lights of stasis.

"Gideon?" he tried.

"You recognized me," she said, smiling lightly. "I don't plan to stay. The plan was to get you started but I'll stay if you need me to."

Snart nodded then stepped out into the corridor. He was surrounded by green lights. "Where are we?"

"This is the _Acheron_."

He kept walking. He remembered the _Acheron_ though he hadn't been on it. Captain Eve Baxter had sent out a distress beacon. Snart had suspected a trap and had been right. That was the time he and Sara nearly froze to death and the time Mick had betrayed them all.

But the _Acheron_ was also where he'd been in stasis. And they said his savior had not been nice about it. A woman. So Eve Baxter, Time Master.

He found her on the bridge. She was talking to someone familiar. He'd seen him over the comms when he'd captured Rip, Jax, and Mick. John Valor, time pirate. But he and Baxter didn't appear to be enemies. She looked longingly into his eyes, and he smiled at her, held her hand. "I'll prepare the datastream," he said. "You prepare the message. They'll come."

Valor looked up and right at Snart. But Snart wanted to know if he could be seen. He stepped to the side, further in to the bridge. Valor didn't track him. Interesting. The pirate shook his head and left the bridge. Snart stayed with Baxter.

"Gilbert," she said, calling her AI, "prepare a message. It has to reach Rip Hunter."

"Ready." This AI had a male voice like the one in Chronos's ship.

"This message is for Rip Hunter." She moved closer to the screen in front of her. "You must be proud of yourself, aren't you, Rip? Proud of your team? You got away, probably killed Savage, definitely destroyed the Vanishing Point. You've won. And it only took the sacrifice of one of your team to do it. Was it worth it? Did you save your wife and son? Was it worth the lives of the hundreds that died here? You see, I wasn't at the Vanishing Point until just after. Your team didn't disable my ship. The few survivors I found fled the Vanishing Point—except one. But you don't mind those dead, do you? It didn't matter to you that you swore an oath to them." She lowered her voice but it just sounded more menacing, especially since he knew she was talking about him. "What about the other cost? The cost to that one man you sacrificed? You'll find a datastream attached to this message. Look it over carefully. Then come find me." She pressed a button.

"Message recorded," Gilbert said. "Shall I send?"

"Not yet," Baxter said, resuming her easy manner of speaking. "We need to attach a datastream."

As if on cue, Valor returned and handed her a chip.

Gideon came to his side. "I think we should fast forward."

"Fast forward?" Snart asked her. Eve Baxter didn't seem to notice either of them.

"That was word for word the message Rip received about you," Gideon explained. "I don't think you are just dreaming, Mr. Snart. I think you've travelled in time. And I think you might prefer to see what happened when the Legends came for you."

Author's Note: I was Jax's cousin. Well, I was the one who lucked into becoming a lucid dreamer just like that. I can't remember the new dream I had. Just the stupid one, the thinking, and the rewinding. Gotta use dream-logic on some of those nightmares, but there's always a way when you can add your actual brain to the mix.


	8. Chapter Seven

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Seven**

So maybe dream time-traveling was a little like controlling a DVD player. With Gideon's coaxing, he thought about fast-forwarding, and everyone moved faster around him. Pirates came and went, though he and Gideon seemed to still be in real-time. As real as a dream could be. She told him when to stop, and Snart got to follow Eve Baxter out to confront a Rip Hunter that turned out to be a hologram.

And he could pause the action and move to a different place. He watched Ray shrink his broken and burnt self and put him in a device that looked a lot like a bulky glasses case. He realized it had to be a form of stasis or he woudn't have survived. He watched _Timestalker_ strafe the _Acheron_. He saw Firestorm and Rip take out the extra cannons.

He went to the _Waverider_, though he did stop to watch Amaya chase down two runners. He was no speedster but she was faster than a human. Mick had said she fights like animals. Was that a horse or cheetah? He got to see Mick burn off Valor's legs. He still had a lot to catch up on.

Gideon suggested he might like to see his send-off after he was thought to be dead. That was interesting. But he liked what they had to say about him. Most of it he'd said about himself at one time or other. He really liked what Mick said. A bad guy who did good. Maybe that _was_ what he was. He didn't think he'd ever been a hero like Barry Allen. He didn't want that. But he could live with being a bad guy who did good.

Of course, that made him want to check in on Lisa. He didn't want to see her right after she'd found out. He didn't want to see her crying and not be able to touch her or comfort her. So he chose a month later. Then he dismissed Gideon.

Lisa was struggling. Most days she didn't leave her apartment. She paid the bills with money she made from exchanging something gold, of which she could make an endless supply. She had her groceries delivered, but she didn't eat much.

She did go out once though. He followed her. She didn't meet with anyone on the way. She didn't try a heist. She went to a non-descript building and down to its basement. A group of chairs were arranged in a circle. Some were occupied. Then he saw a familiar face. Cisco met her where she hesitated in the doorway.

"I'm glad you came," he told her, taking her hand. He led her to the chairs, and they sat down together. The leader of the group started by asking if anyone wanted to share. A woman sitting across from Lisa talked about her son's suicide, and Snart realized what kind of group this was. It was a grief support group. He left the room. It seemed wrong to lurk. Besides, he still couldn't comfort her or tell her he was alive after all. He started to go, but he heard her voice and he just couldn't move.

"They told me he died a hero. He was my hero. My brother."

Leonard couldn't do it. He couldn't listen to her grief. He'd never wanted to be the cause of her grief. He went back to her apartment to wait for her. He could walk through her locked door. That was kind of weird but Gideon had told him his physical body was still sleeping on the _Waverider._ So was he more like a ghost now or something different?

While he waited, and to take his mind off his sister, he experimented. He tried to affect objects in his environment. She had some dishes sitting dirty beside her sink. He tried to touch a glass. His hand passed through it. He walked around trying to touch other things without success. Finally, he just sat down on the couch to wait for her. And then he realized he was sitting on the couch and not falling through it.

Lisa returned a little after an hour later. She'd been crying.

Leonard stood up. "Lisa, it's me." But she didn't seem to notice. He tried to touch her face but that didn't work either.

What good was this new way of dreaming except as an escape from the pain of the stasis chamber? He could move forward and back in time, even pause so he could go somewhere else. But it seemed he could only observe. "Gideon?" he called out.

The brunette woman representing the Ai appeared beside him.

"What was the plan?" he asked her. "You said it was just to get me started. Started with what?"

"Lucid dreaming," she replied. "Mr. Jackson had shared that his cousin could control her dreams and thus think her way out of nightmares. We hope by my stimulating you to think that you could do the same."

A lot of good that was doing? "Only instead of dreaming, I'm traveling through time and actually observing true events."

"Yes, though, in a sense, you are still dreaming. You are not here in a physical sense."

"The only things I can control now," he argued, "are where and when I go. If I were lucid dreaming, wouldn't I be able to more?"

"Well, some lucid dreamers have reported being able to wake themselves up, to change dreams from one to another, to use objects in the environment or even to make new objects. In one account, a youth dreamed of an unkillable murderer chasing her. She tried various means to kill him but he always got up again or pulled himself back together. She finally decided on shooting him, then slicing him into thin slices and putting him through a paper shredder. She reasoned that it would take him so long to reconstitute that morning would come and she'd wake up."

That was pretty complicated thinking for someone who was asleep. Though it was kind of farcical. "A paper shredder?"

"Another lucid dreamer mentioned using 'dream logic', which to him meant that he wasn't bound by the restrictions of reality."

"Why can't I do that?" Snart asked her. "I can sit on a couch but I can't touch a dish or comfort my sister."

"The evidence would suggest that you are somewhere between lucid dreaming and time travelling. Perhaps you will gain more control with practice."

Snart didn't like that answer, but he accepted it. This was his first time after all. No successful heist had ever worked for him without putting in a lot of prep-work. "I can't stay here. It hurts to see her like this."

Gideon's expression softened. "Where would you like to go?"

Hadn't Mick said they'd killed Savage three times at the same time? "I want to see how they defeated Vandal Savage."

"You'll need to visit three different times and locations to see it all. You can start in Harmony Falls, 1958."

* * *

When Snart decided he was ready to return to the _Waverider_ and wake up, he found his body was stiff from having slept so long. He had seen the end of Vandal Savage. All three times. He'd even seen the team's adventures in 1942. Gideon had then had to explain the time scatter. So he was there to see Nate and Oliver Queen wake Mick up from his own stasis. He saw the regrouped team—without Rip—get trounced by the Justice League of America, of which Amaya was a member.

He had caught up with the main events of the next year, right up to when the team broke time. He wasn't able to visit the altered reality that the 'Legion of Doom' had created. But he did get to experience the very crowded _Waverider_ with two of almost everyone. Then Sara used the spear to take away the power of the spear, and some zombiefied version of a speedster took out the speedster in yellow. That's where he decided to wake up.

"Gideon," Snart asked as he stretched. "How long was I asleep?" He did feel a lot better now.

"Ten hours, twenty-six minutes," the disembodied voice of the AI responded. "I would like to see you in the medbay for a neural scan. You have obviously gained a new ability since the destruction of the Oculus."

Obviously. "If you mean that I had never time traveled in my dreams to eavesdrop on past events before, yeah, that's new. But let's keep this between us for now. It's not a particularly useful ability at the moment."

"Acknowledged. I would still like to scan you."

"Only if no one else will walk in and ask annoying questions."

"The others should be retiring for the day in four hours."

Four hours. He could manage four hours. "Okay, where are they now?"

"Mr. Jefferson is affecting repairs. Drs. Stein and Palmer are in the lab. Ms. Jiwe and Dr. Heywood are in the library. Captains Lance and Hunter and Mick Rory are in the brig."

That had to be interesting. Snart got up and headed for the brig.

* * *

Rip didn't get angry. Mick was Mick after all. He was quite used to Mr. Rory's fiery temperament by now. "Let me have just five minutes with her," the arsonist insisted.

"Eve Baxter wasn't always bad. She let her grief take over. Valor's influence was likely a factor as well."

"I can hear you, you know." Baxter spat out behind him. "You're the criminals, not me. What did you do with Jon?"

Rory leaned in close to the glass. "I roasted his legs off!" he told her, scowling.

She stepped back. That's when Rip noticed Snart standing in the doorway. "Ah, Mr. Snart, you look well rested."

Sara met him at the door and took his arm. "Just the one we needed to see right now." She turned to the others. "I said it was his decision and I meant it."

"My decision for what?" Snart asked, leaning against the wall.

"Murderer!" Eve screamed at him. Snart didn't react. He had murdered people before after all.

"She's the Time Bastard who set you up as bait for us," Mick Rory explained.

"Ah." Snart had grasped the situation. He always was astute. He strode confidently to the doors. "Mick, may I borrow your gun?"

Rory snickered and handed the weapon over. Snart keyed open the door and pointed it at Baxter's head. Rip moved his hand closer to his own weapon. He couldn't let him just kill her. Not like that.

Snart stepped in and Baxter backed into the wall. "Why shouldn't I roast you slowly from your toes to the top of your head?" Snart calmly asked her. He lowered the weapon until it pointed at her shoes.

Eve's eyes pleaded with Rip's, but he gave her nothing. Snart hadn't shot her yet. She looked back to the thief. "I saved your life," she tried.

Snart tilted the heat gun up. "True, but only to a point. You also managed to torture me at the same time." He brought the gun back down.

"You killed hundreds. Destroyed the Vanishing Point."

"I destroyed the Oculus," Snart argued back. "Everything—and everyone—else was just icing on the cake."

His calm demeanor must have confused her. "Why?"

"Rip didn't tell you?" Snart asked. "That your precious Time Master overlords were in league with Vandal Savage, a megalomaniac who killed thousands?

"Millions," Rip corrected.

Snart tipped the gun toward him. "Millions. Didn't he explain that they used the Oculus to control time, not just observe it? That they manipulated us right from the start? Even had Rip's family killed to motivate his escapades?"

"Lies," she argued, but without conviction. She looked to Rip.

"It's true," Rip told her. "They showed me. We caught Savage with future technology. Turned him in only to have them give him a timeship and send him back to murder my family. Everything we did to try and stop him, they manipulated so we'd fail. They were going to kill us all. The only way to be free of their control was to destroy the Oculus."

"We were the good guys in this story," Snart told her. "You threw in with pirates."

She had no retort.

"You threw away all your morals," Sara told her. "Went against everything you believed in."

"What did you do with the others?" Eve asked. She'd lost all her bravado.

Sara stood next to the cell. "Marooned in a permanently stationary and cloaked timeship in the Vanishing Point. They'll live, but they'll never be discovered and they'll never escape."

"Including stumpy," Mick added for effect.

"You could send me there," Eve suggested.

"With all your Time Master training?" Snart said. "I don't think so."

Perhaps he thought she could repair the _Acheron_ and get it running again.

"I think I'll need to sleep on it," Snart finally decided. He left the cell and closed the door after Sara was clear. "Now that I _can_ sleep." He handed the heat gun back to Mr. Rory and walked out.

* * *

Sara went with him. "So the device worked?"

"As intended," Snart told her. "We'll have to send Jax's cousin a thank you note."

"I was a little surprised you didn't fry her," Sara admitted.

"Heat's not my thing," he confessed. "My gun is in disrepair."

She smiled. "Ray had to take it apart to stop a bomb from destroying Reagan's White House."

"So I've heard."

"So what did you dream about?"

That was a little too personal at this stage, but it did tell him that they hadn't asked Gideon when he was sleeping. "Gideon got me out of the chair, then I just dreamed other things. I don't really remember."

"As long as it wasn't exploding," Sara said, "it's all good. I'm glad it worked. You were out for a long time."

"Ten and a half hours," Snart replied, agreeing. "I almost feel human again."

Sara stopped him in the corridor. "You really going to make her wait?" she asked. The bridge was behind her.

"She made me wait."

"Hey, look who's up!" Jax called out. He joined them and put his hand on Snart's shoulder. "Good to see ya, man!"

"It's good to be seen." Snart didn't really want to be the center of attention, but he had just recently come back from the dead, so to speak.

Stein joined them and they moved to the bridge. "I take it our device was helpful?"

"Like a charm," Snart told him.

Ray, who was already there, beamed. "You're alive!" And then he hugged him. Snart was not the hugging sort. Ray, on the other hand...

"Don't smother him, Haircut!" Mick ordered. That only left Rip and the new people. It was old home week on the _Waverider._

Ray let go and Snart dropped into one of the chairs. "So how did you manage to break time anyway?"

"We caused a temporal paradox," Jax admitted.

The others helped fill him in on what he already know. He'd seen it. Whatever had happened after the Legion used the spear must have been really bad for them to risk it. And even though they did the world a favor, they still earned the consequence.

After telling the end of the story, Nate and Amaya joined them. They all went on to tell of the adventures with George Lucas and JRR Tolkien, or how Mick Rory now had a statue in DC. He'd witnessed all of it in one ten and a half hour nap. What was he going to do all the rest of the nights he had left?

Somehow, everyone had ended up in the galley, still filling Snart in on all he'd missed while Amaya made dinner. Nate even demonstrated his "steeling up." Finally, someone yawned and they all got ready to turn in for the night. Snart waited for them to all go to their rooms, then he went to the medbay. While Gideon scanned him, he thought about what to do with Eve Baxter. A part of him did want to kill her. But he also felt like a quick death was too easy.

The scan finished. "Well?" he asked Gideon.

"I took the liberty of scanning you while you were in stasis. Your DNA was altered due to the influx of temporal energy. I expected there to be less temporal energy now due to the fact that so much of your body was—pardon me if this is indelicate—cut away before regeneration."

That all made sense but he caught that the AI had expected a certain result which most likely meant that is not what she found now. "So now there's more?" he asked.

"Yes. The highest concentrations are in your brain, but it is circulating throughout your body."

That could certainly explain why he could do what he did when he slept. "Is that a bad thing?"

"I'm uncertain. What happened to you is unprecedented. When Captain Hunter absorbed temporal energy from the time drive, he lost his memories. He was able to regain them with time and the team's help. The amount of temporal energy in the Oculus was far greater still."

"Let's continue keeping this to ourselves for now," Snart ordered.

"Of course."

Snart left the chair. "See you in my dreams, Gideon." He headed back to his room.

* * *

But four and half hours awake did not make him sleepy after ten and half hours of sleep. He tried sleeping but it just wouldn't come. So he sat on his bed and played solitaire. He talked to Gideon, getting more details about his rescue, how things went on without him and the last year in which he joined the Legion of Doom. And he asked for her suggestions for dealing with the Time Master in the brig. Finally, she told him that the others were starting to rise. He left to beat them all to the bathroom.

When he exited, Amaya and Nate were in line. "Oh, you're up!" Amaya smiled for him. "Did you sleep all right?"

"I didn't," Snart told him. "It was too soon."

"Dude," Nate said. "You are going to crash at some point. They said you needed to sleep for a week."

Amaya slipped into the bathroom. "I imagine I will," Snart replied. "But not before we deal with Eve Baxter." Sara showed up to join the line.

"Have you decided what to do with her?"

"I believe so," Snart answered. "See you in the brig."

He went to the galley next and grabbed a bite to eat then headed to the brig. "You're right about one thing," he told Eve Baxter, waking her up.

She shook her head slightly then pushed herself up. By the time she was standing, Snart was in front of the cell door.

"I am a murderer. I killed people long before I joined this team. But back then it was all about me. What I could get out of it. I'm a thief, after all."

"But this time was different?" she added and Snart didn't miss the sarcasm.

"It was," Snart agreed. "Before, I was a bad guy doing bad things. This time, I was a bad guy doing a very good thing. You wouldn't have fallen in love with your prisoner if the Oculus had remained. Not unless your minders wanted you to fall in love with him. You had free choice to fall in love, to plot your revenge because I destroyed it."

"Are you going to kill me?" Eve asked.

"The thought crossed my mind." Snart made sure to keep his expression neutral.

"You could maroon me with the others."

Snart squinted. "In _your_ ship? Still don't think so. If I don't kill you, slowly, I'd have to leave you somewhere you could never, ever do anything meaningful again."

Sara and Rip entered just then. "What do you have in mind for our captive here?" Rip asked.

"There was that place Ray ended up after the time scatter," Snart said.

"Where was that?" Eve asked.

"Not far from a tyrannosaur nest," Sara told her. "Has potential. Nate said Ray secured his camp site."

"From tyrannosaurs anyway," Snart added. "What about where you ended up?"

"Ooh, I could see her being accused of witchcraft," Sara said. She turned to Eve. "Especially if you try to tell everyone what happens in their future."

"I'm guessing where I ended up is out entirely," Rip said.

Snart turned toward him. "Film school?" He opened the cell door then stepped in and took her arm. "I have killed people with my bare hands, you know. Try anything and I'll demonstrate."

Rip produced a pair of binds and bound her hands behind her back. "I'd rather he didn't demonstrate."

"Take her to Chronos's ship," Snart told him. "I'll be along shortly."

When he was alone with Sara, he told her his plan. She smiled. "Good choice. I'll make sure she's dressed appropriately."

Snart went to the jump ship bay. It also led to the _Timestalker's_ air lock. It was the first time he'd been back on that ship since he'd left it with one less hand than he'd been born with. There were still a few pieces of it there on the deck. The railing was still broken. Only now it was Eve Baxter sitting on the steps that led to the bridge. She was still bound. She was trying to convince Rip to let her go, banking on their previous friendship. Rip paid her no mind. "Ah, Mr. Snart. Have you decided on a destination?"

"I'm thinking the Dark Ages," Snart told him, stepping around her. "Someplace very primitive, maybe Bohemia. I'll even be generous, put her down between the Plague years."

Sara stepped in holding some clothes and a pair of simple leather shoes.

"You should get changed," Rip told Baxter. "You'll want to fit in."

"I helped you when you needed it," she told him, standing. "You owe me."

"Perhaps before you tortured Mr. Snart here and tried to kill me and the rest of the Legends."

"Legends?" she scoffed. "No one will even remember them."

Snart leaned in. "You will."

"Regardless," Rip said. "You along for the ride, Captain Lance?"

"Nah," Sara waved him off. "I'll get our girl here dressed then let you boys have this little trip." She pulled Eve back to the back and undid the cuffs.

Rip turned to give her privacy. Snart was already facing away. "I wouldn't try anything," he told the prisoner. "Sara used to belong to the League of Assassins. She doesn't need weapons either."

"Ah ah," Sara said behind them. "Bras and panties weren't in fashion."

It took only a few minutes before Eve was dressed and cuffed again. Snart sat her down on the steps and Sara closed the airlock on her way out.

"You might as well just kill me," Eve tried. "I don't speak the language."

"I hear they have words without vowels," Snart told her. "But I don't even know if they had written language then so it doesn't matter anyway."

"Immersion is a very effective way to learn a new language," Rip said as he set the course. It didn't take long for _Timestalker_ to arrive. "I'll even give you your first word: '_Chleb_' means 'bread,' not to be confused with 'Cheb' the name of your new home town. The year is 1351. The plague ended here last year."

Snart leaned down to her. "Don't worry, it will come again."

He leaned back up and brought her with him. Rip joined them as they marched the few steps to the door at the back of the ship. They both led her out of the ship. They were in a forested area. "May I?" Rip asked. Snart nodded his head toward the smoke in the distance. He let go and just watched. He didn't fully trust Rip, but he didn't think he'd do anything to help her.

* * *

Rip moved her away from the ship. "I'm sorry it came to this," Rip told her. "But you chose vengeance and torture. Snart is being rather merciful, you know. He's not a good guy."

"Then why save him?" she said, giving one last try, "if he's a bad guy."

"Because he did good," Rip replied. "He's evolved, as has Mr. Rory and Sara Lance. Rory and Snart would take offense at being called heroes. But it didn't stop them from behaving heroically. In the end, they do the right thing, though maybe not in the right way. If one can accept that, they make valuable members of a team.

"But it doesn't matter anymore, not for you." He held up a memory flasher and flashed it in her face. "Do try and stay clear of the rats," he told her as he freed her hands. "Bubonic plague visited Bohemia more than once before it was all over. There's a town that way. See the smoke? Do try and stay out of trouble."

She started walking and Snart joined him where he waited. "She has no memory of being a Time Master," he told him. "She's in a time where she can work no technological advantage or influence, especially as a woman in these repressive times."

"Sounds good enough. She'll do okay. Real meat and potatoes people here."

"I didn't think you were well traveled," Rip remarked as they headed back to the ship.

"Mom's side of the family," Snart replied. Then he yawned. "Looks like I'm finally ready to sleep again."


	9. Chapter Eight

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Eight**

This time, when he slept, he visited many different times and places. He saw some of his fights with the Flash, saw Flash defeat the Reverse Flash and even Savitar before he grew bored. So he checked in on Sara's family and how things had been in Star City before her sister died. He was specifically avoiding seeing Lisa. He couldn't handle her grief. Not yet.

He spent some time just being on the _Waverider_ in the present, experimenting. He could walk on floors, lean on walls, sit on stools, but he couldn't pick up a beer bottle. That seemed contradictory. He could also choose to walk through walls. So if walls were tangible in one instant and intangible in another, there had to be some trick to them being tangible. And if walls, floors, and stools were tangible, then other items should be as well.

He was pondering that when he walked through a wall into the corridor just outside Rip's room. Rip had a bag over his shoulder. It was night on the _Waverider_ and the others were sleeping. Snart decided to wake up. He dressed quickly and stepped into the corridor to see what Rip was up to.

* * *

Sara followed Rip as he tried to sneak out. She was barefoot and used her Assassin training to follow silently. He was headed for the jump ship bay.

"Stealing the jump ship, again?" she said, startling him.

Rip turned. "I'm still no good at good-byes. But no. I thought I'd take the _Time Stalker_ and leave you the jump ship.

"Leaving so soon?"

Now it was Sara's turn to be startled. She turned to face the newcomer to the conversation. Snart had slipped away, too, it seemed.

"Mr. Snart," Rip acknowledged behind her. "I thought you'd be sleeping for several more hours yet."

"I heard noises," Snart said. "Besides, I have plenty of time to sleep again. Were you going to leave without allowing me to thank you?"

Rip set his bag down. "It is I who should be thanking you. If you hadn't done what you did, the future would have been very different indeed."

"We'd all be dead," Sara added, "or puppets."

Snart didn't react. He was probably not used to receiving such outward praise. "Where are you going?" he asked.

"If you must know," Rip admitted, "I've been at the Refuge. With time broken as it is, I'm hoping to create an organization like the Time Masters to set things right."

Sara didn't like the sound of that. Snart didn't either. His eyes narrowed. "I did what I did to end the Time Masters."

"I do not plan to recreate their mistakes," Rip assured them. "I have no designs on anything like the Oculus. The Time Masters grew arrogant. They thought they knew better than anyone so much that they manipulated time to their purposes."

Snart stepped forward. "Your new organization better not grow arrogant then," he said. "Or I might have to end it, too."

He hadn't sounded that menacing since the brig, Sara thought, but she had no plans on trying to rein him in. She had let him sacrifice himself to put a stop to that kind of arrogance and manipulation.

Rip nodded. "Noted." He took a step forward and offered his hand to Snart. "I'm very glad you're back, Mr. Snart."

Snart eyed him carefully but shook the hand that was offered. "Captain Hunter."

With that, Rip left and Sara turned back to Snart. She smiled. "How did you know he was leaving? He was very quiet, and I didn't make a sound."

"I have my ways," he replied. She started walking back toward their quarters.

"Did Gideon tell you?"

Snart was not committal. "Maybe."

"We still have a few hours to sleep before morning. If you're up for it then, we need to start fixing what we broke. Maybe we'll have it all fixed by the time Rip gets his new organization up and running."

"I'm good to go," Snart said. Sara figured he was lying even if he didn't realize it. It hadn't been a week yet. "Though I would like to drop in on my sister at some point."

"Absolutely," Sara assured him. That would not be a fun conversation. Then again, she'd already had that conversation with her sister and her father. Lisa would survive. She stopped at his door and waited for him to enter. "See you at breakfast."

* * *

He couldn't sleep right away so he got ready for bed and then thought about what Rip had said. He intended to rebuild the Time Masters without the mistakes. The Time Masters had probably began with high ideals and good intentions, too. The Oculus, however, had given them unprecedented power. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, as they say. Would a similar organization, without the Oculus, be free of that same corruption? He doubted it. Corruption was easy to come by.

This time when he went back to sleep, he knew right where he wanted to go. He had a feeling he shouldn't trust Rip and his new organization entirely. So when Gideon woke him inside his dreams, he told her he wanted to see what would happen tomorrow, when the _Waverider_ returned to Earth and its broken time.

He was in for a rocky ride. When the _Waverider_ finally crashed, he got his first glimpse of what time looked like when it was broken. He went with the team as they left the ship. It was odd watching himself with them, but he focused on the others. It was surreal. There were a lot of T-Rexes running around not exactly eating people, and a lot of people were going about their day as if there weren't any T-Rexes around.

The team stopped as one T-Rex came toward them. Snart expected Amaya to use her token. Ray had the same thought and suggested it. But a square of light opened in front of the group and the T-Rex walked right into it and disappeared.

Snart backed it up and paused the moment. He went around to the T-Rex's point of view. Inside the light square was a different world. The city could only be seen outside the square. He let the scene play out and the light square closed after the T-Rex went into it.

Another square opened and Rip Hunter emerged from it. He was dressed sharply, with a crisp beard and a blue suit in place of his long duster. And he blamed the Legends—omitting his own membership in that team—for breaking time and dismissed them there on the spot. He said his new organization, the Time Bureau, had started five years before. Which would mean Rip went back in time to before he recruited them or stopped Vandal Savage.

And just like that, it was over. Rip said he'd forward everyone's belongings to each of them, and that his agents would be happy to drop them off wherever they liked.

Snart felt betrayed. Doubly so as he watched himself and the rest of the team stand still in shock. Rip's manner negated everything they'd been through together. There was no appreciation for saving the world from Vandal Savage or the Legion of Doom. Nor for the destruction of the corrupt Time Masters. The Legends were simply dismissed as if they were nothing more than the mistakes they'd felt forced to make as to save reality.

He'd been right not to trust Rip Hunter. Now he had a dilemma. Should he warn the others? How would that play out? He'd have to explain how he knows what he knows and then what? Would they refuse to leave the _Waverider_?

Could he even do what-ifs here in the dream time travel place he was in? Only if they could see and hear him, which they couldn't. He'd have to warn them in real time. But should he?

He decided to fast forward seven months while following Sara. He moved along with her as she zipped through the weeks and months. He saw her working for that home goods store and scowled. That was the best the world could do with her skills? He slowed down when she met Ray and Nick in Central City. They were going to the Time Bureau to ask Rip for their ship back. He sped up again and Sara was in the pilot's chair on the _Waverider._ Looks like things were going to work out after all.

Snart woke up. He had some prep work to do. "Gideon."

"Yes, Mr. Snart."

"Seems this will be my last night on the _Waverider_ for a few months. I'm going to need a few things." Between Gideon and the fabricator, he soon had what he needed. He boxed up his damaged cold gun and put everything else in his coat pockets. He included the tablet with the images and video that explained his resurrection of sorts. The other tablet docked with his lucid dreaming device. Only when he was sure he had everything ready did he lay down to sleep again. And when he did, he focused on Rip Hunter and went right back to him leaving the _Waverider_ earlier in the night. He wanted to see how Rip would build the new organization.

Rip used this ship to go to the Refuge. Snart found it rather boring. It was just Rip writing and planning while kids ran around with the woman he called Mother. Snart remembered that these kids were candidates to be trained as Time Masters. Or they had already been Time Masters, like the little Michael, who was the younger Rip Hunter. The ones that weren't, would Rip train them for his new Time Bureau? Snart fast-forwarded and saw that Rip did spend some time with some of them in a classroom sort of setting.

Snart slowed things down again when Rip returned to the ship. More than a year had passed. Snart wasn't even sure how he knew that but he did. Rip went to Earth in 2014 and Snart sped up again. Rip was looking at a building in Star City. Snart wondered how he had managed to get the deed. He didn't exactly have a regular income or even proper identification. And the smaller ship he had really didn't have much in the way of fabrication abilities.

Finally Rip returned to the Refuge then went back and forth, ferrying equipment, building the familiar technology of the time ship into that warehouse building in Star City. He also build bunk beds and living quarters. On his last trip from the Refuge, he brought a dozen of the older kids with him. Most were sixteen or seventeen. By the next year, those kids were older and helping him build equipment.

Rip left again and took the _Time Stalker_ to 2213. He spent some time there, procuring computers, office equipment, and a clone of a stern-looking woman. When he returned to Star City, he trained the woman and installed the equipment. Snart didn't find anything nefarious yet, though he did note that it was still a few months until Rip would recruit the Legends. When that time came, he moved to the rooftop and found the familiar group of heroes and villains. He had a small moment of wanting to make sure his younger self didn't get on that ship the next day. But then he wouldn't have had the experiences he'd had besides the blowing up. And he would rob Mick of all his experiences, too.

Seeing that things were pretty tame where Rip's new organization, the Time Bureau, was concerned, he decided to revisit the Vanishing Point, just after the explosion. A few Time Masters had survived to contact Savage. He knew where Eve Baxter was. Where were the others? Watching her in that time, though, he felt sorry for her. She was obviously moved by the scale of destruction and the number of the dead. He followed her as she found survivors then stayed with her as she dropped them off in whichever time periods they choose. A few of them went so far in the past that he didn't give them much thought but one of the first she found stayed with her until he was the last. He was a dark-haired, thin-faced man, and he chose 2010 in Keystone. Eve Baxter was then alone again and she started finding solace in the company of her prisoner, Jon Valor. Snart knew where that would end up, so he didn't dwell on it.

He realized it was time to wake up without knowing how he knew the time. Gideon hadn't said anything. He woke himself up and stretched. Then he dressed and put on this coat, double-checking that everything was in his pockets. He took one look back at the box with his cold gun and the crate with his other things. Rip said he'd have their belongings forwarded. He left the room and headed for the galley for breakfast.

Later that morning, everything played out exactly as he'd seen. Rip seemed distant and laid all the blame for breaking time on the Legends. Once he dismissed them, another agent, the strict woman from 2213, came forward and offered to take each of them wherever they wished to go. Snart had anticipated that. He, Nate, and Amaya chose to go to Central City. Sara and Ray went to Star City and Mick stuck with his earlier desire to go to Aruba. The agent used a device, like a smartphone, and several cars pulled up. The first was for Central City. The second was for Star City. There were hugs and handshakes as the group split. Ray was the most emotional. "We just got you back," he said as he hugged Snart again.

But Mick's hug surprised him more. "Come with me."

"Sounds nice, but too warm for my tastes," Snart told him. "Besides, Lisa's in Central City."

Nate and Amaya took the back seat so Snart got in the front. A thin man with glasses was in the driver's seat. Nate and Amaya spent the drive talking about plans while the driver, Gary, nervously droned on and on about things Snart had no interest in for most of the trip. "So, uh," Gary said as he dropped off the lovebirds," will you be returning to your life of crime?"

So he knew about that. "Not sure," Snart told him. "I was dead all last year."

Gary swallowed visibly and eyed him anxiously. "You look better," he squeaked.

"Definitely," Snart agreed. "I've seen pictures."

"You want to see your sister, Lisa Snart?" Gary asked.

Snart felt a pang of guilt in this chest. "Not just yet," he replied. "Just drop me off at Star Labs. I'll find my sister from there."

Thankfully, the shorter ride was accomplished without Gary's babbling. He stopped the car in front of the damaged complex still known as Star Labs. Snart got out. "Thanks for the ride," he offered Gary, then shut the door and walked toward his next awkward situation to deal with.

* * *

The last person Barry expected to walk into the command center of Star Labs walked into the command center of Star Labs. Barry had been discussing how the new metas were being made. They both went silent when Leonard Snart walked out of the elevator.

"Snart?" Barry asked. "Um, which Earth are you from?"

Snart gave him a look of confusion. "There are more than one?"

Barry nodded. "Leonard Snart, aka Captain Cold, on this one," Cisco said, "is dead. So?"

"Ah!" Snart held up a finger then pulled a tablet from his pocket. "I was formerly dead. I feel better now." He looked around the room for something.

Barry walked out from behind the counter. "Formerly dead? Gideon can do that?"

"Took more than Gideon, actually." He held out the tablet. "3046, I think they said." He turned on the device and a gruesome picture of a very crispy human being filled its screen. Then items around the burnt body began to move. Snart turned it off again. "Watch it later, if you want. I need your help."

Barry's eyes had gone wide watching just the few seconds he'd seen. Cisco had come over to watch over his shoulder. "Wow, you were a really crispy critter," the engineer said.

"I don't remember much but the burning," Snart admitted. "I need to see Gideon."

"Gideon is on the _Waverider,_" Barry told him, confused.

"Well, good ole Rip Hunter just kicked us off the _Waverider_ because he and the rest of the team broke time while I was—away."

"Broke time?" Cisco asked. "Should we be worried?"

Snart smiled, but it wasn't a friendly smile. "Rip and his Time Bureau are putting everyone and everything back where they belong. Don't you have any chairs?"

Cisco shrugged and took the tablet back behind the counter.

"What do you need, Snart?" Barry asked him.

Snart pulled another item from his pockets. "Gideon. I need Gideon to sleep." He held out a small stick that looked a lot like a thumb drive. "She said to put this in your Gideon so your Gideon can help me sleep while she's away."

Barry now noticed the dark circles under his eyes. The way he was looking over at the medical area and the bed there.

"If this is what happened," Cisco said, "I'm not surprised you're having trouble sleeping."

Snart ignored him. Barry took the drive. "How does Gideon help you sleep?"

"She wakes me up," Snart said, "inside my dreams. Then I can dream something else that's not the exploding and burning."

Barry was becoming concerned. "Do you need to lie down?"

Just for a moment, Barry read fear in Snart's squinted eyes. "Not without Gideon."

Barry put a hand on his arm. "I'll take you to her." He didn't exactly want Snart to know the way to the Time Vault so he sped him to the spot where the door would open. Barry touched the wall and Snart followed him inside. He went to the pedestal and Gideon's bald head greeted him. "Hello, Barry Allen."

"Gideon from the _Waverider_ said to give you this," Barry told her, holding up the drive. "You might want to scan it for malware first," he whispered. Snart could still be up to something.

Gideon took a moment to process the drive. "Oh, hello, Mr. Snart," she said, finally. "With Barry Allen's permission, I would be happy to assist your lucid dreaming experiences." Perhaps Snart had been telling the truth. Snart pulled a second tablet from his pockets. "Synchronizing."

But then Snart started to wobble a bit. "Are you okay?" Barry asked.

He yawned. "They said I'd need to sleep a week after—" He waved a hand to dismiss the rest of his sentence.

"How many days ago was that video?"

"Three or four but I didn't sleep well at first. It's very confusing. Only had Gideon for a day or two."

Barry touched his arm, ready to steady him if needed. Even four days from being a burnt near-corpse was still probably too soon. "Gideon, are we good to go?"

"Be sure to place the device on your temple before you sleep, Mr. Snart."

"I don't plan on forgetting," Snart said, though his speech was a tad slurred. Barry took a better hold then sped him to the medbay and the bed there. Snart climbed onto it willingly. He snapped a device off the tablet and placed it on his temple then laid down.

"I think we'll need to talk more when you wake up," Barry told him before he could fall asleep. He turned off the lights and went back to the main room where Cisco was looking a bit green while he watched the other tablet. "That bad?" he asked.

"Kate would probably find it fascinating," Cisco said, pausing it. "I've been watching it on fast forward but still..."

Barry looked over his shoulder at the now still image. Snart's head was still black and charred, but whole chunks of his body were just gone or in the processes of being either cut away or built anew. He looked back at the man in the medbay. Snart had been through a lot. It changed him. Barry really wanted to talk to him when he woke up. He pushed play on the video and sped it up some more.

"He okay in there?" Cisco asked.

"He said they told him he'd need to sleep a week," Barry told him. "This only happened about four days ago. He's only been sleeping for two of those days."

"What did he want with Gideon?"

"He needs her help to control his dreams. He seem different to you?"

"Well, yeah," Cisco replied. "But we never really dealt with him after he came over to the light side on account of him blowing up."

Barry just nodded. In the video, Snart's face and head were being stripped away and rebuilt. "Yeah, I think there's more to this story. Maybe we should call Caitlin."

"I think 3046 wouldn't have released him if they didn't think he was healthy, but yeah, I think we should. These boxes came for him while you were there."

"Probably his stuff from the _Waverider,_" Barry said, glancing up. One box and a crate Snart didn't have much.

"Do you think we should tell his sister?" Cisco asked.

Barry hadn't thought about that. "Oh, God. Uh, yeah. But not until we talk to him some more, okay?"

* * *

"Wake up, Mr. Snart."

Snart opened his eyes and saw the brown-haired woman he knew as Gideon standing beside the chair in the _Acheron's_ medbay. "I thought you'd be different." He stood up out of the chair.

"She left good notes," Gideon explained. "Shall I leave you or would you like me to stay?"

Snart thought about that. He didn't need her spying on what he was doing. He didn't trust her as much as the _Waverider's_ Gideon. "If I let you go, can I call you back if I need you?"

"Certainly. Just call my name." Then she disappeared.

Smart decided to first go to Star Labs in the present. He wanted to know what Barry and Cisco were saying about him. He was starting to think he needed them for more than the other Gideon. But he wanted to be sure he could trust them.

They were in the main room just outside the medbay, watching the video on the other tablet. He didn't really want to see that again, so he decided to come back later. He had someone else to check up on.

He switched to follow Rip from the present back to his fancy office building with blue-suited agents coming and going. He went into an office and talked to an older black man. There was a name plate on his desk. Director Bennett. Rip gave him a preliminary report and was dismissed. Then Rip went to another office and sat down behind a desk with his own name plate.

"What have you built here, Hunter?" Snart asked.

A woman entered the office. It was the clone. "All of the so-called Legends have been taken to their chosen destinations and their belongings have been forwarded."

"Good work, Agent Sharp," Hunter replied. "Now we can get back to fixing all the mistakes they created."

"They?" Snart said. "You made them right alongside them. Or did you forget?"

But Hunter didn't hear him. "Where are we with the anachronisms?"

"Thirty-five percent decrease from the original breaking of time."

"Well then we still have a lot of work to do," Hunter said. Then he dismissed her with wave of his hand.

Snart decided watching Rip push papers was not going to be helpful so he followed the woman out of the office. He wandered the building observing and listening in to various agents and officers. They wore something on their wrists that looked a bit like a smart watch. But that device opened the windows to other times, like he'd seen with the T-Rex. He even found the _Waverider._ It was in a large warehouse or hangar. The bay door was open so he went aboard. Everything had been cleared out. Only the galley was stocked. There were young people in the seats on the bridge running through simulations. Snart didn't see Gideon anywhere.

"Gideon?" he called.

"Yes, Mr. Snart?" The brown-haired woman joined him.

"Barry's Gideon?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Just checking," he told her. "Where's the other Gideon?"

"I'm sorry, as we are in your dreams, I am physically still at Star Labs. I cannot connect remotely to the _Waverider's_ Gideon."

"And she can't hear me, either," he realized. This Gideon looked like her and sounded like her, but she wasn't her. "Okay, you can go again."

She disappeared. The instructor talked about the simulations as if they were object lessons. Snart remembered some of them and others he recognized from the stories he was told by the others. They were ridiculing the Legends. The whole organization seemed to see them as screw ups. Never mind that they'd saved the world, twice. Or that he had saved free will.

But as he listened he also heard some of them ridiculing Hunter. He had recruited an assassin, an inventor, two violent thieves, and a meta-pair of a mechanic and a professor. How could they possibly have made a good team? Good question, Snart decided. But they had. And now they were little more than comic relief. That was the not package Hunter had sold on that rooftop in Star City. And it was not what he'd told him of this new organization just last night on the _Waverider._

There was hubris here. These agents, with their technology and education thought they were better equipped to save history. Just like the Time Masters. Maybe they couldn't control time like they had, but hubris bred corruption. And Snart didn't like where this was leading. He went back to the office building but on his way in, he thought he saw a familiar face. So he paused and took a closer look. It was a thin-faced, dark-haired man. He was talking in a dark corner with three others. He focused on the dark-haired man and rewound his day, his year, his life at a speed that would make even Barry Allen jealous. Snart followed him all the way back to a damaged Vanishing Point and a call telling Vandal Savage the Time Masters couldn't help him. He was a Time Master. And Snart would have bet the other three were, too.

Author's note: Well, I finally managed to write another chapter of this story. I'm still trying to juggle 4 WIPs (2 posted and 2 not). I should probably let Philippe check in on _Momentis_ and the _Alien Us_ sequel then write a bit more of that 1997 story before I come back to this. I've got ideas though, for the next few scenes.


	10. Chapter Nine

**DC's Legends of Tomorrow **

**Perchance to Dream**  
by Gabrielle Lawson

**Chapter Nine**

Snart ended his journey back at Star Labs in the present. He could see himself lying on the bed in the medical bay. Barry wasn't around but Cisco was showing the video to Dr. Caitlin Snow who kept looking toward the med bay then back to the tablet. Her eyes kept getting wider and wider as he watched.

When it was over, she put the tablet gently on the counter. "It's fascinating but the amount of regeneration! I'm not sure that's technically ethical."

Cisco shrugged. "It saved his life."

"Yes," she agreed, "but can you imagine? One minute you're exploding and the next time you have a cognitive thought, you're fine." She shook her head. "That has to be jarring. And now he's been kicked out of his home on the _Waverider_. He's been off doing incredible things throughout time and now he's just dumped here in the present."

"Also jarring," Cisco concluded.

Snart decided he liked her. She got up and tip-toed toward the med bay. "Maybe I should scan him or something," she whispered.

"You thinking maybe they put his pancreas where his liver should be?" Cisco quipped. "It was 3046—will be 3046?" He shook his head. "I'm sure he's fine. He just needs to sleep for a few more days."

She came back to the counter. "How long has he been asleep now?

"Uh—" Cisco checked the time—"about eleven hours."

That long? Snart wondered why he hadn't known how many hours it was. His previous journey let him know when it was morning. But then, it had been late morning when he'd come to Star Labs. So it was probably late in the evening now. Still, he wasn't sure he wanted to wake up yet. Barry didn't seem to be in, and he still wasn't sure about the rest of Team Flash.

He didn't have to wait long. There was a gust of wind behind him as the speedster arrived, all dressed in his little, red suit.

"Snart, it's good you're—" He stopped and looked around in confusion, ending up at the med bay. "He's still asleep."

"Week's not over yet," Cisco quipped.

"But I just—"

Snart wondered if he forgot how to end a sentence.

Then he was gone. Whooshing around the room in circles over and over.

Snart covered his eyes with his hands. "You're making me dizzy."

Barry stopped again.

"What's going on?" Cisco asked.

"I'm not sure," Barry answered, finally finishing a sentence. Though it was a very short sentence. But more interestingly, he was looking right at Snart. And not the one sleeping in the med bay.

"Can you see me?" Snart asked.

"I think we need to have that talk now?" Barry said, though Snart couldn't tell if that was an answer or not.

"Maybe you should get changed first," Snart replied anyway. "I'm not sure I can have a serious conversation with you dressed like a cherry popsicle."

Cisco stood. "I'll wake him up while you get changed." He started walking toward the med bay."

"Gently!" Caitlin warned.

Snart decided to save them the trouble and woke himself up. Caitlin ran in to be at his side. "Easy, you've been asleep for eleven hours."

Snart waved her away and stood. He stretched and his stomach growled. "Got anything to eat?"

Barry, now dressed as himself, held up a finger. "I'll be right back."

"You might be more comfortable in the lounge," Caitlin suggested. "I'll show you the way."

Barry blew by them on the way, but in the end, it was clear that this was not to be a one-on-one discussion. Barry had brought Iris with him, and they sat together across from Snart. Cisco and Caitlin sat to Snart's side. And they all waited patiently as Snart ate his burger and fries.

All except for Barry who fidgeted and shifted his waited. Snart ate slowly, savoring every bite and enjoying making Barry uncomfortable. Finally, he wiped his mouth and hands on a napkin and leaned back into the sofa he was sitting on.

"How is that I could see you standing in front of the command center but you were still asleep in the med bay?"

Right to the point, Snart thought.

"He what?" Cisco said, looking at Barry like he was a few bricks shy of a load.

"I could only see him at speed," Barry explained. He turned back to Snart. "Why is that?"

"That, I don't know," Snart replied. "We didn't have a speedster on the _Waverider_. Besides, I'm kind of new at the whole thing."

"New at what whole thing?" Cisco again with the questions.

Snart sighed. "When I sleep, I don't dream. I replay memories, or rather one particular memory." He held up the small device. "Martin and Ray cooked up this little device so that Gideon can communicate with me subconsciously."

Cisco seemed to finally catch up. "Helps you control that memory," he suggested, "so it doesn't have to end in—" he used his hands and voice to mimic an explosion.

Snart looked away. "That was the plan," he said. "Result was different. I can move through time and space as easily as Barry here does through rush hour."

Barry leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "So did you just stand in front of the Command Center for eleven hours?"

"That would have boring," Snart replied. "I paid a visit to the Time Bureau."

"As it is now?" Barry questioned. "How do you know you go through time?"

"I watched myself get rescued," Snart told him. "Saw how they killed Vandal Savage, three times. Three times they killed him, not three times I watched. The night before we came back here, I looked at the next day, to know what to expect with time broken and all. I saw what Rip was going to do. Gideon and I made the plan to get your Gideon on board."

"Wait," Iris said, "you this morning, last night?"

Barry didn't give him time to answer. "Did you tell the others they'd be kicked off the _Waverider_?"

Snart shook his head. "As I said, this is all rather new to me."

Caitlin put a hand on his arm. "Did this have something to do with the regeneration procedure?"

"Only in that I can actually sleep or breathe," Snart answered. "Before that I was in stasis and before stasis I was seconds away from dying."

"You were in stasis for a year?" Barry asked. "They said you were dead, not in stasis."

"I wasn't in stasis on the _Waverider_," Snart explained. "And it was probably more than year. Time is different in the Vanishing Point."

"The Vanishing Point?" Iris asked.

"Where the Time Masters were," Snart answered. "It's outside the timestream."

"Where the Time Masters were," Barry repeated. "Not are. What exactly blew up?"

Snart put a hand to his chest. "Besides me? The Oculus. And I blew it up."

Iris looked concerned. "Why would you do that to yourself?"

Snart shrugged. "Someone had to. Ray was going to do it, but Mick knocked him out. So I knocked Mick out, and then—" he used his hands and voice to mimic an explosion.

"So you did it to help the others get away," Cisco guessed.

Snart tilted his head. "Not exactly, though that was a result."

"You destroyed the Time Masters," Barry said. "Was that the result you wanted?"

"Side benefit," Snart replied. "I did it to destroy the Oculus and save free will so the others could get away."

Barry sat back again and shook his head. "Free will? What exactly was the Oculus?"

"Ray could probably explain it better," Snart told him. "But in short, it was the fount of all temporal data the Time Masters used to identify errors in the time line. It was also how they manipulated time to their whims. They were in league with Vandal Savage. They made sure Rip's family would die to motivate him. And they were going to kill us."

Barry had a troubled look on his face. "But that doesn't explain why you can do what you do when you sleep."

And that was the hard part. He hadn't even told Sara about Gideon's scan. He blew out a breath. "I exploded a massive source of temporal energy which destroyed the Vanishing Point and the Time Masters. And apparently, my body absorbed a lot of that energy even as it was thrown clear."

Caitlin stood up and paced a few steps. "I don't know if I can even scan for temporal energy."

"You should maybe try and find a way," Snart told her. "Maybe Gideon left a hint on that data chip?"

Barry leaned forward again. "You _want_ us to scan you?"

Snart looked him right in the eye. "A large part of the body that absorbed all that energy is in a biohazard dust bin in 3046. But Gideon found more in my new body than what had been in the old."

Barry's eyebrows came down so low they almost met in the middle of his nose. "What does that mean for you?"

Snart slurped the last of his soda. "Didn't get that far. Rip took my Gideon away."

Iris leaned forward, too. "Whatever it means, we should contact your sister."

Now it was Snart's turn to lean on his elbows. He rubbed his face. "Hey, sis, I'm not dead anymore."

Cisco moved closer. "She'll be shocked at first, but then she'll be thrilled. I can give her a call, ask her to come by."

* * *

Barry and Caitlin had left to consult with Gideon while Cisco contacted Lisa. Snart was left with Iris, and he didn't really know her at all.

"Thank you," she said, after the others were gone.

He looked up at her. "For what? Saving free will? You're welcome."

She smiled. "Actually for helping Barry. The device didn't work in the end. But that doesn't change what you did."

He leaned back again, suddenly feeling tired. He'd only been awake maybe an hour.

"It'll work out," Iris told him. "She loves you."

"Everyone thought I was dead for a year. _I_ thought I was dead."

"She'll understand," Iris told him. "You'll just have to explain it."

Then Iris stood and looked toward the door. Snart turned his head. Lisa. He stood, too.

She was frozen in the doorway, Cisco by her side. He could see the tears in her eyes. She covered her mouth with her hands. "Is this real?"

Cisco put a hand on her back. "It's real."

Seeing her cry broke something in him. His chest hurt. He took a step toward her, but she rushed into him and wrapped her arms around him. She held him so tight that he lifted her off the ground.

Snart felt another hand at his back. "We'll let you two get reacquainted," Iris said, then she walked Cisco back into the corrido.

"I'm sorry," Snart told his sister. He set her down and led her to the sofa.

"You're back," she said. "How?" She wiped her eyes with her hands.

"Cisco didn't tell you?" It was a long and somewhat gruesome story. It was easier for him to just show the video. But this was Lisa. They had grown up together. She knew everything else. Ray and Mick had even told her how he'd died. He saw the snowflake pendant there on her neck. "You know why I supposedly died."

She nodded. "How are you here?"

"One of the Time Masters and her ship escaped the blast," he told her, half-hoping Barry was listening in. He didn't want to have to repeat it. "She found me. Rescued me, all burned up and missing limbs. She put me in stasis to keep me from dying. But once she figured out I wasn't one of her buddies, she made me bait for the other Legends. So they came and defeated her. They got me back, took me to a hospital far in the future. They kept the good bits and replaced everything else. We came back to this time, and Rip Hunter took back the _Waverider_. His new Time Bureau dropped me off here."

"Why go to the Flash?" she asked. "Why not come to me?"

Snart took her hand. "I need his help. I need something he has to sleep. And right now, I need a lot of sleep."

"Then let's go home," she said. "You're staying this time?"

Snart nodded. "Nowhere else to be for a while." He stood. She held his arm like she thought he was going to disappear again. They didn't say much else as they walked back down to the Command Center.

"Gideon did leave some hints," Caitlin told him.

"But it's going to take a day or two to build what we need," Cisco added.

Lisa pulled away and looked at him. "What you need for what?"

"When he destroyed the thing he destroyed," Barry explained, dressed again as the Flash, "he absorbed some of its energy. We need a way to scan for it."

"Is it bad," she asked.

"Don't know yet," Snart told her. "But it has interesting side effects. I'll tell you all about it in the morning. My stuff here?"

"If this is all you had," Iris said. She pointed to his crate and the case with his gun. Snart lifted the latter and put it on the counter. He opened it and turned it toward Cisco. "Can you fix it?"

Cisco looked stricken. "What did you do?"

"I didn't, Ray did," Snart told him. "Something about diffusing a bomb in Reagan's White House."

Cisco sighed and closed the case. "I'll see what I can do. You staying with Lisa? I can drive you back."

Snart bent to lift his crate. Then he and Lisa followed Cisco out of the Command Center and Star Labs. There was a van parked out front. Not very stylish.

"Guess you won't be back to the meetings," Cisco told Lisa as she climbed in the back and took the crate to set on the seat beside her.

"No," she told him. "But thank you for inviting me, Cisco. It helped."

Snart opened the passenger door. "Who was it for you?" he asked Cisco.

"Brother," Cisco said. "Car accident."

"My condolences," Snart offered. Then he yawned.

Cisco asked as he pulled the van into the street. "Already?"

"Apparently," Snart replied, "I'm not caught up yet."

Lisa reached forward to touch his shoulder. "Lenny?"

"Just tired," Snart assured her. "Docs said I'd need to sleep a lot after they put me back together."

Lisa and Cisco talked the rest of the way. Snart just watched the city pass by outside.

"Ooh!" Cisco exclaimed, garnering Snart's attention. "Timewalker!"

Snart was confused. "What?"

"It's better than Captain Cold," Cisco said, glancing over at Snart. "I mean, not now, when you're awake, but later."

"Is this about the side effect you'll explain tomorrow?" Lisa asked.

"Or I can just let Cisco here explain it now," Snart replied, giving Cisco a look that said he really should explain it.

"You got you're thing?" Cisco asked, touching a finger to his temple.

Snart checked his pocket. "Never leave home without it. Should be fine as long as it has decent range."

Cisco took a right turn. "So the energy your brother absorbed is temporal energy. When he sleeps, he doesn't dream. He time travels."

"Really?" Lisa asked. "What do you do when you time travel?"

"So far, just watch," Snart replied. "Can't touch anything. No one can hear me. Only the Flash can see me."

"Kid Flash probably can," Cisco said.

Snart didn't know that one. "Kid Flash?"

"Another speedster member of the team," Cisco supplied. He pulled the van to a stop.

"This is us," Lisa said. So Snart got out and opened her door. He took his crate and she climbed out.

"We'll call when the scan is ready," Cisco offered from behind the wheel.

Snart leaned back in. "And the gun."

Cisco sighed but nodded. "And the gun."

Lisa waved good-bye to Cisco then led the way up to her apartment. It was just like he'd seen it a month after his 'death.' Dirty dishes in the sink, clothes scattered around the living room. It had been a year and she was still struggling. "I'll take the couch," he offered as he said his crate down on a bare patch of carpet.

"I'll get a second bed tomorrow," Lisa said. "You can sleep in mine tonight."

He took her shoulders. "Lisa, I've had worse. We both have."

She smiled at him. "Just for tonight." She broke his grip and picked up his crate. She put it inside the door to her bedroom.

He looked in. It wasn't much cleaner but the bed was in decent shape. He could see a bathroom down the hall. "Just for tonight." He took off his coat and laid it on the back of a chair. "I may sleep a long time, Lis. Ten, eleven hours. But if you need me, you wake me up. Promise."

She smiled and nodded. Then she hugged him again. "I know it wasn't a miracle, but it feels like one."

She pulled back and figured her pendant. "You can explain why you'd freeze off your hand to protect me from some bad guy. Tomorrow."

Snart smiled. "Deal."

She grabbed some clothes from her dresser. "You get the bathroom first. I'll be fine for a few more hours."

She always was a night owl. Just like him. He took a quick shower then pulled back her covers and laid down. He put the device on his temple and closed his eyes, already planning his next visit to the Time Bureau. He was asleep in minutes.


End file.
